


Approval

by CanuckleheadCowgirl, magnetocerebro



Series: The 714 Marvel Universe [43]
Category: Avengers Comicverse, X-Men Comicverse, Young Avengers Comicverse
Genre: Evil Governments, Gen, Racism, Second Generation, X-Kids - Freeform, implied abuses, implied authoritarian overreach, implied past exploitation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-04
Updated: 2020-07-13
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:21:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 65,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24539917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CanuckleheadCowgirl/pseuds/CanuckleheadCowgirl, https://archiveofourown.org/users/magnetocerebro/pseuds/magnetocerebro
Summary: The desire to fit in comes in many forms - and not all of them are self imposed. Everyone struggles with gaining approval from someone ... or accidentally gaining it from those we do not want it from. A lifelong struggle for all of our X-Men and second gen will play out - it's just a matter of where that approval is coming from - and if it's well received.
Relationships: Billy Kaplan/Teddy Altman, Chance Summers(OC)/Elin Howlett(OC), Jubilee/Noh-Varr, Krissy Wagner(OC)/Sying Varr (OC), Kurt Wagner/Kate Bishop, Logan/Lilja, Scott Summers/Annie Hale(oc), Wolverine/K
Series: The 714 Marvel Universe [43]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/552748
Comments: 14
Kudos: 6





	1. Oh No, Another Blonde Telepath

Scott and Annie had spent two full weeks in Savannah for their anniversary. Scott had agreed not to bring his phone or comm — though he did have a panic button on both of them in case of the worst kind of emergency — which meant that it had been _two whole weeks_ of uninterrupted rest and relaxation.

Both of them were grinning as they got back to New York — and they had even decided to spend a little time with each other in Salem Center. They went out to breakfast alone before they "officially" got back, just spending that little bit more time away from the stresses of everyday life.

But the fact that they hadn't been in touch with anyone else meant that they honestly had no idea what the reporters who swarmed around them before they could get home were talking about when they started shoving microphones at Scott.

"How long have the X-Men been using Wolverine as a weapon for their agenda — and can you even stand on a moral soapbox and condemn other organizations who do the same thing?"

Scott stared at the reporter who had asked the first question. "What are you talking about?"

"The recently leaked footage — of the literal Weapon X for which the program was named. The weapons plus program was completely controlling him when he was in that group. According to the miliary and scientists in the know, there's no way that he could have gotten rid of the controls they had in place. It's only fair to assume that the X-Men are the ones holding the choke chain now. Do you have a comment, Mr. Summers? We all would like to know your standpoint on this."

Once again, Scott simply stared at the reporter. "No, seriously," he said slowly, the beginnings of a smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. "What are you talking about?"

"The fact that the X-Men aren't any better than the weapons programs you claim to be fighting," another reporter opined smugly. "Now, you're the one giving the orders to Weapon X … or _Wolverine_ if you feel better about _that_ name. Admit it."

Scott couldn't stop the disbelieving sort of barked out laugh. "Yeah… alright, sure, you go ahead and try giving him an order and see how it works out for you," he said, still in disbelief that _this_ was the first thing to come up on his return. "You're kidding, right?"

"Are you going to give us a straight answer?" one reporter demanded.

Scott scrubbed a hand over his face and shook his head. "I just did. _No_ — the answer is no, we're not controlling anyone."

" _Mr Summers,_ " one of them pressed. "You can't expect us to believe that — the military record that was released proves that he has _never_ stuck in one place even a _tenth_ as long as he's been with your group."

"So you're surprised that he's found something he wants to stick to?" Scott asked with one eyebrow raised. "Take a look at that record again. The places he didn't _want_ to be in couldn't keep him." He held his hands out in front of him. "For as many times as we've split ways, you _really_ think I could control him?" He shook his head, smirking again and nearly laughing. "You guys have short memories."

"You have to admit, it's been longer since any split— "

"I'm _not_ controlling Wolverine. I never have and I don't think anyone ever _could_ ," Scott said. "Do your research. Look into the history of the X-Men, and if you still believe I've got any control over him, I don't know what to tell you. I must be a self-destructive taskmaster." He shook his head with a little chuckle. "Now if you'll excuse me, I was enjoying some time with my wife."

With that, Annie and Scott headed out again, and Annie couldn't help but shake her head as she took his arm. "I think they were serious."

"Not a one of them looked old enough to know the history of what they're talking about," Scott said, shaking his head with a glare that only lasted until Annie stood on her toes to kiss him again, and they went to the car with plans to go the institute to catch up on all that they'd missed.

When Scott finally powered up his phone on the way back to the Institute, there was of course, a ton of messages and voicemails that lit up, but there was one near the top that caught his attention from Captain America. _Call me ASAP._

He raised his eyebrows at that. "Guess the break's over," he told Annie, who let out a wistful sigh, but nodded, and Scott put the phone up to his ear a moment later. "What's going on?" he asked as soon as Steve picked up on the other end.

"First of all — Happy Anniversary," Steve said. "But … I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that you didn't have any access to the news at all while you were out, did you?" He sounded entirely amused.

"I haven't seen anything since we left two weeks ago."

"Then I think you need to come by the tower before you go home — come in through the sub-basement to save yourself reporters," Steve said. "I have something you're going to want to see."

Scott raised both eyebrows but nodded. "I'll be there," he promised, though now he couldn't help his curiosity, and he was pretty well convinced that something big must have happened. They came in through the underground entrance, of course, and when Steve met them, Annie was sure to wrap him up in a warm embrace for a 'hello'.

"And what's so important to get us here so fast?" she teased.

"Well," Steve said, smiling as he drew in a deep breath. "There was a little shake up while you were out. The government officials in Canada made a dirty play against Logan, and it looked … _very_ bad by all counts." His smile was gone by the time he got to that point. "They released some pretty choice clips from when they had him in the program - mindless and totally controlled. It was apparent that he had no control of his own."

Scott frowned at that. "That would explain the questions we were just hit with when we got back," he said.

"They tried to frame him up as just a total puppet in an attempt to get a new wave of anti-mutant sentiment; we've been dealing with the same questions for the last … week anyhow," Steve said before a crooked smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. "And then… this morning, Logan snapped."

Scott frowned. "What happened," he said almost flatly.

Steve waved him over. "I already got the recording saved to my phone," Steve said. "I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to keep it." He tipped his chin toward the screen on the wall and simply handed Scott the remote. "All cued up and waiting for you."

The video started out simple enough. Logan had obviously been at Avengers Tower, and the moment he'd stepped out onto the street, he was mobbed with reporters pressing about some of the old footage that Canada had leaked of himand the allegations that they were pushing that said more or less that he was simply following someone else's marching orders … but it was clear that they'd gotten on his very last nerve when he raised his hand halfway in front of him and cut the guy off.

"Let me make this perfectly clear," Logan said in a tone that was easily recognizable to even those that didn't know him; he'd had enough. "I'm only gonna say this once. I've spent decades … _decades_ fighting to save mutants and humans alike. Most of them were kids, but there were plenty of adults that got caught up by them or those like 'em and ground up into dust. That footage? All that really is was them _admitting_ what they pulled on me and God only knows how many others long before anyone really knew or cared what a mutant was. _It's their confession_. Proof of their record; an admission of everything we've been saying for years. I never signed up for anything that they did — and the only person I know that did has regretted it nearly every day of their miserable existence since then."

He took a moment to square up to the young man off camera while the whole enclave of reporters fell silent. "I'm not going to stand here while _anyone_ screws over a bunch of kids. I don't care if they're mutants or not; I'm not gonna watch it. That's the whole point of what we're trying to do — and what I've tried to do for as long as I've been on the right side of any fight. Yes. I've done some rotten things in my life. I've never denied it. But if that's all you can see - I can't help you. I'm too busy busting my ass and doing someone some good. You oughta try it yourself for a change."

With that, he shouldered past the line of reporters, flat ignoring any of their further questions, and the recording ended.

Scott stared at the screen for a moment, but it was Annie who let out the first real giggle. "Oh, good for him," she said, clearly tickled.

Scott, on the other hand, just gestured at the screen with one hand and turned to Steve with the smirk back in place. "See? And they _still_ think the X-Men are controlling him?"

Steve was smiling his way. "I can't explain it. But I think I'm going to keep that where I can watch it. That was a fantastic shutdown." He held up his hands though. "But you should know: he hasn't returned my calls or answered any texts since this morning. I don't know if he saw it or if he's just mad … but you should know what happened and what you're walking into."

Scott nodded. "Good to know," he said. "It'll be an interesting welcome home."

* * *

Logan was in the garage — and had been since he'd gotten back to the institute from Avengers Tower. He couldn't even remember what it was that he'd said to the stupid reporter because he was so damn mad when he said it — he honestly didn't know if it had even made sense or if he'd come off sounding as stupid as he felt. So from the moment he'd gotten into his Jeep, he'd turned the phone off and left it on the bench behind him when he got to the garage. He couldn't do anything about it now.

But he had a new bike to fix up and nowhere to be, so he focused on that and tried to push the rest to the wayside.

He was well into the project when Scott and Annie got back from their trip in high spirits, and while Annie headed in to reunite with the kids, Scott couldn't help but smirk at Logan. "So," he said as the door shut behind Annie, "I've been told I'm controlling you." The smirk widened. "I must be very bad at this job."

Logan gave him a dry look and doubled down on his project. "You're hilarious."

"No, what's hilarious is the questions they were asking, especially after that takedown of yours," Scott said, shaking his head. "Captain America showed me the video… that was perfect. They'll have a hard time coming at you — which is why they were coming at me."

"I don't even know what I said," Logan admitted.

Scott couldn't help but smirk. "Well that explains why you were so eloquent," he teased lightly.

Logan tipped his head to the side slightly and didn't reply except to reach over to crack open a fresh beer with a weary sigh. He was _not_ in the mood to deal with any of this. And he'd just gotten into a decent groove with the bike.

"They're on their last legs, Logan. I'm just sorry they're trying to take you with them while they're at it."

"Wasn't ever gonna happen any other way," Logan said quietly.

"Well, I don't mind telling you I'll be glad when they're done," Scott said, a bit more seriously, then let out a breath. "Anything happen while we were out — other than a few desperate dying gasps from that program?"

"Nope," Logan replied. "Nothin' worth goin' over."

"Mac alright?"

"Last I checked," Logan said. "He's still around."

"And Chance?"

"He's still around too."

Scott smirked at that. "That's real helpful; thanks, Logan," he said before he turned and headed inside to catch up with his family.

* * *

Logan was doing his best to flat out avoid everyone he could outside of K — and he had even gone so far as to change his normal pattern. He was up and around over an hour earlier than usual to simply grab a cup of coffee and then disappear again — and he was entirely avoiding any gathering that he could find a way to sidestep. So it was almost a whole two days after Kitty showed up that she managed to even _find_ him.

And she was quick to outright tackle him. "What, I don't rate a hello anymore?" she asked him with a grin.

"Figured you were passin' through," Logan said.

"Oh. That was so bad." Kitty rolled her eyes. "You're hilarious," she said. "No, we're staying for a little bit — at least until right before the semester starts. Then I have to go be _responsible_." She pulled a horrible face.

"Sounds awful," he agreed, curling his lip back.

"Exactly. That's why I _wanted_ to hang out with you," Kitty said, smacking him with the back of her hand.

"Yeah? What's the occasion?" Logan asked.

"I'm going to let Jayce tell you himself," she said with a smirk. "He's very excited."

"You're not pregnant," he said with a straight face just to get a rise out of her.

Kitty let out a huff and shoved him in the shoulder hard - though she was the only one to move.

"I'm not wrong," he said.

"No, you're not, but come on," Kitty said, rolling her eyes.

"Alright, what do you want from me, then?" Logan asked as she pulled on him and he got to his feet with a weary groan.

"Come say hi to the kids," she said. "Nina wants to see you too."

"Fine," he grumbled and took a moment to return the hug when she wrapped him up. It was _nice_ to see her again, after all. It had been far too long, and he missed seeing her. Not that he could say as much without making it sound like a guilt trip.

They were just headed back up to the mansion proper when, all of a sudden, there was a blonde head sticking out of the outer wall. "BOO!"

Logan closed his eyes for half a second and then growled low his way. "This is what you came here for?"

"He stopped phasing through the bed when he sleeps, so we figured it might be safe for him to start learning more than that," Kitty said, though she was giving Jayce a stern sort of look as he fell apart laughing.

"Well, he's ahead of you then," Logan said. "If he can stay in bed."

"That… that was a _fluke thing_."

"Uh-huh."

Kitty shook her head at him and leaned on his shoulder as Jayce tumbled the rest of the way out of the wall, still laughing to himself. "Hey, Grampa Wolvie!" he managed to say through his giggles.

"Hey Ghost Punk," Logan said in return.

Jayce laughed even harder at that. "I'm keeping that now. It's mine," he swore before he finally got to his feet and rushed over to give Logan a hug. "Did I getcha?"

"Sure," Logan said. "Not bad, kid. Did better than your mom ever did."

"You were always _waiting_ on me," Kitty complained.

"Because you were always trying to do it," Logan pointed out.

"Mom said I could go to school here," Jayce said.

"Do you want to?" Logan asked with a little frown.

"Well yeah!" Jayce said. "I mean, I got my grandparents here… and Mom learned to use her powers here… plus I think Tris is thinking of coming out here too, and he's my best friend."

"I'll be sure to batten down the hatches," Logan deadpanned.

"Well, don't batten them down _too_ hard. He's just a telepath; it's not like he's got _claws_ like Lifeguard."

"Watertight," Logan swore before he grabbed the kid and tipped him over onto the ground. "What's wrong with claws?"

Jayce started laughing harder. "Gotta batten more hatches down with claws," he teased.

"Nah, just sink the boat."

"Sounds fun," Jayce laughed as he got to his feet. "So, what do you think? Pretty cool, right? I had to figure out how to _just_ get my head through."

"Neat trick," Logan said with a nod. "Only time I ever put my head through a wall, there was a hole there afterward." The three of them headed toward the kitchen, where Jubilee was trying to joke around with Peter Quill, though she was a little grumpy herself and might have been picking a little too hard if the little burst of colored sparkles was anything to go by.

Kitty made her way over to rescue Jubilee and snag Peter by the back of the neck to pull him into a kiss and distract his attention.

Logan made a face at that and dropped into the seat next to Jubilee, only to lean closer to her. "Why do I have to be here again?"

"Because you love us?" Jubilee replied. "And because you're not stranding me with them."

"Wanna bet?"

"I'm just saying; Kitty said there's a sweet-faced blonde telepath coming our way, and you _know_ that means trouble."

"Telepath is always trouble," Logan said straightfaced as he looked her square in the eyes.

Jubilee couldn't help smirking as she blew a bubble and popped it. "Yeah, but I'm the fun kind of trouble, right?"

"They all say that," Logan said before he kissed her cheek in an attempt to get her to stop before it got too far. Considering the telepath in question was part Creed and all.

"I bet I'm more trouble," Jayce sang out toward the two of them.

"I guess we'll see if you can break any of the records," Logan said before he gave the kid an appraising sort of look. "Don't hold your breath, though. Not if you're going up against these two."

"Oh, hey, if I'm going up against a pair, then at least give me a chance to pull in my best friend," Jayce said, holding up his hands.

"Um … excuse you, Star Midget," Jubilee said. "I hold my own records — on my own, thankyou very much. And so does your mom. Good luck keeping pace."

"Um, excuse you, Aunt Jubes, my name is _Ghost Punk_ , and I accept no substitutes!"

She wrinkled up her nose. "I stand by you being 'Star Midget'," she said. "And you're not the one that gives out nicknames anyhow, so what do you know?"

Jayce pointed at Logan. "I _got it_ from Grampa Wolvie, and I'm keeping it."

She looked irritated for a moment as she turned to Logan, who shrugged one shoulder. "Too late," Logan said easily as Kitty once again took a hold of Logan's arm to snuggle in.

Jayce grinned at her and then leaned over to hit her in the shoulder. "See? I went through all the right steps."

At that, Peter Quill just laughed and hooked his arm around Jayce's shoulders. "C'mon. I thought we were going to take the Lees down in the water balloon fight."

"Right, right, yeah," Jayce said, then waved at Logan and the other two. "See ya!"

* * *

Classes were set to start when the last of the newcomers to Westchester showed up — and of course, the McCoy family headed right down to the med lab to see Hank _first._ Lacy and Tristan were anxious to get the chance to wrap up their grandfather in hugs and for Tyler to spend some time with his baby sister, who had gone through a growth spurt over the summer, so she was now _almost_ tall enough to reach Tyler's ribs.

"Who said you could get any bigger?" Tyler teased Jolie, who just laughed at him.

"Oh come on; I'm not four anymore."

"Still short," Tyler shot right back.

" _Everyone_ is short to you!" Jolie said, her tail swishing behind her as she laughed at him, ready to pounce the second he turned his head.

"Pretty much, yeah," Tyler agreed before, just to prove it, he caught her up in a spinning hug the instant she did pounce.

It wasn't too long, though, before the McCoy reunion was less one teenage blond, because Tristan had headed off to find Jayce and make sure they were bunking together. It was a matter of top priority, after all, and it didn't take him long to find Jayce helping Logan with his bike, putting new chrome on the brand-new Harley.

"Hey, Jayce. Hey, Logan!" Tristan called out with a smile.

"You come to give the little punk some trouble, or are you wantin' to learn the names of the tools too?" Logan asked without looking up from the bracket he was removing.

"Can I do both?" Tristan asked with a little smile. "I mean, I was just coming to make sure I got to room with my best friend, but if you're offering… I wouldn't say no."

Logan looked up at Jayce for a moment, then over to Tristan. "You're coming in for the year too, eh?"

Tristan nodded.

"And what is it you do, kiddo?" Logan asked while Tristan made his way over and sat down on an open creeper seat.

With a sort of sheepish smile, Tristan pointed at his own head with his index finger. "I can hear people's thoughts," he explained.

Logan smirked to himself and nodded slowly. "Ah. So it's _you_. You an' me are probably gonna end up spendin' a lot of time runnin'."

"Why?" Tristan asked with his head tipped to the side. "I mean… I know you helped my dad with his powers and everything, but… running?"

"Nosy telepaths end up spending time running," Logan said.

"So is that just a rule for all telepaths, because I don't _think_ I'm nosy, but I can't help it sometimes when people's thoughts are too loud," Tristan said in a perfectly matter-of-fact tone as he looked over the chrome job they had done so far. There was a small pile of stock fittings and pipes on the floor on one side of them and another stack of boxes next to Logan that were waiting for their contents to be put on the bike.

Logan glanced up at him with one eyebrow raised. "I'm not sure how to answer that, since that's exactly the same excuse I hear when they tell me they didn't mean to."

"So I guess we'll be running," Tristan said with a sigh as he leaned back. "I _am_ trying to figure out how not to eavesdrop."

"I'm no good for that," Logan said before he gestured for Tristan to hand him a screwdriver. "Most telepaths can't read me anyhow. That's why they run with me. Drives 'em nuts not to hear what I've got comin' before it happens."

Tristan shrugged as he handed over the screwdriver Logan had gestured to. "That's pretty much how everybody else is, though, isn't it? They don't know it's coming either."

"That's the idea. Just gotta teach 'em to mind their own business."

"Oh," Tristan said, finally catching on with wide eyes. "Oh, okay, I… no, see, I _don't_ pry in other people's heads. That's private. Are you kidding me? No way."

Logan and Jayce both looked over at him at the declaration. "Really." It was crystal clear that Logan flat didn't buy it. Not with every single telepath he'd ever met having been pushy in that regard.

Tristan looked between the two of them and shrugged. "Really," he said. "I could go all day without hearing what Sister Jacobs at church thinks about the song choices."

Logan watched him for a long moment, then let out a little 'hmm' before he went back to work. "Stay or go. Makes no difference to me."

"I'll stay," Tristan said, looking over at Jayce with raised eyebrows, but Jayce just shrugged openly.

"Don't ask me. _I_ don't have to run," Jayce said.

"That's what you think," Logan said in an undertone.

The boys glanced at each other and then at Logan before Jayce ventured, "Can we go for a ride on the bike when it's done, Grampa Wolvie?" in an obvious attempt to try and cheer him up out of the grump.

"I'm not takin' anyone with me until things settle down," Logan replied.

"Something wrong with the bike?" Tristan asked with a frown. "It looks brand new."

Logan shook his head. "It is brand new - but it's not the bike I'm worried about."

"I won't phase through it," Jayce argued. "I'm pretty good at staying solid now, honest!"

Logan let out a sigh that showed the boys perfectly how downhearted he was just then. "Maybe come spring," he said. "Gotta break it in right first."

Both of the boys looked disappointed, but neither of them could argue it either. "Alright, but springtime comes and I want to ride, please!" Jayce said. "I haven't ridden on a bike since I was little and it was just around the yard slow."

"It's all spaceships and high-tech jetpacks and stuff up in Chicago," Tristan agreed with a nod.

"Lots of flying," Jayce said.

"And Jayce doesn't like heights," Tristan said with a teasing grin toward his friend.

Logan smirked at that and shook his head. "We'll see how it goes. If not me, maybe someone else can give you a ride."

The boys looked at each other and then both shrugged, though it was clear they were disappointed with the answer. "Alright." But, in spite of what Tristan had said, he and Jayce already had a system between them — and with a look, the two of them were quietly discussing what was wrong with Logan and how they could help. But the two of them didn't really have to be quiet about things for long. Not when just a few minutes later, Logan swore under his breath and set his tools down.

"What's wrong?" Jayce asked, worried that the boys had done something to set him off. He'd heard all the stories, and his grandfather _did_ seem more grumpy than he was used to seeing.

"Don't have the right fitting for this part," Logan answered, which had both boys relaxing slightly. "Gonna have to go pick it up from the shop. Can't go any further without it."

"Oh. Okay then," Tristan said. "Can we help you when you get back?"

Logan paused and considered them both. "Sure. Gimme about an hour."

"Great," Tristan said with a smile that had Logan scowling at him for just a moment before he slipped by them, grumbling under his breath the whole way to the Jeep. The boys stayed where they were, even watching Logan as he left. "Okay. But, what do you think has him like this?"

"I don't know; he wasn't in a great mood when I got here, either," Jayce said. "He was dodging my mom — and I didn't think he'd _do_ that. Ever."

"And he's still in a bad mood?"

Jayce nodded. "The only time he's mostly okay is when he's with my Grandma." Jayce shrugged. "And then he's just quiet, as far as I've seen."

"Then maybe we should ask her what his problem is," Tristan said. Once again, the boys shared a look, and in a blink, they were off to find K. When they did, both of them started talking at once — blurting out in their own way how they wanted to help, and though she held up both hands to slow them down, they kept talking over one another, finishing each other's sentences and thoughts — though their thoughts were fractured and incomplete all the way up to the unison declaration of: "We gotta help him."

"Okay, come on," K said, waving them both over to her so she could rest a hand on each of their backs. "You can't fix this, boys. This isn't anything that anyone can fix for him."

"But … we _gotta_ ," Jayce insisted, with Tristan nodding seriously beside him.

"Boys, if you want to help, just show up and stick around him when you can. This is something he's gonna need to just ride out. _Believe me_ , if there was a way to fix it, I would have done it already."

"So you know what's wrong," Jayce said, crossing his arms.

"Yes, I do," she agreed. "And if you watch the news, you'd know too."

"But the news isn't anything but people saying horrible things abou- oh," Tristan said, dropping his thought just before the end. "I thought he didn't care what people thought about him."

K raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms. "All evidence to the contrary."

Tristan's shoulders dropped, and Jayce's eyes grew wider. "How can we fix _that_?"

Once again, she put an arm around both of them, pulled them in closer, and kissed their cheeks. "You take the time to hand him tools. You show up when he looks like he's been alone for too long. And show him that you care by being there and proving that you want to be by him."

"But … that's not …"

"It means a lot more than you know," K promised. "And you don't have to say a thing. Just show up. Just … if he's really in a mood and tells you to leave, let me know and I'll take over."

Jayce nodded seriously. "We can do that," he said before he wrapped himself around her to try and crush her in a bear hug - and Tristan gently followed suit. "Thanks. We'll keep you updated."

* * *

As the semester got started, it was increasingly clear that the two newest additions to the group were simply the opposite when it came to their powers. Logan had decided that it was almost like pulling teeth to get Jayce to stop messing around with his powers and playing pranks — but Tristan flat out wouldn't do more than learn how to stay _out_ of people's heads.

"The twins are in fits," Jubilee couldn't help but giggle in the teacher's lounge. "He's been here this long and hasn't gotten in trouble for peeking — and they don't understand why he _won't_. They think Wolvie's totally playing favorites."

"There is a commentary in there about how even Sabretooth's family line is less nosy," K said, letting the sentiment drift off. "I just can't seem to grab onto it right."

"Yeah, well, focus less on the grandfather and more on the parents," Kate pointed out. "Two big blonde _sweethearts_."

K was smirking and shaking her head. "I'm just sayin' …" She shrugged her shoulder up. "He's a good kid. No surprise there, considering Kitten Whiskers is his dad." She snapped her fingers Jubilee's way. "Hey. Maybe he can take the girls to church with him. Might help."

"Might not hurt," Kate said with a little smirk. "I mean, I know _I_ wouldn't want to hear Mrs. Benson's innermost thoughts."

"Oh, but now I do," K said, smiling her way.

"Don't have to be telepathic to know what they are if I bring _you_ ," Kate giggled. "Mostly one unbroken 'ahhhh'."

"And a little of 'what a lovely singing voice,'" K laughed.

"With a 'the Lord is testing me' thrown in there. See? No telepathy needed."

"I could come in disguise," K offered. "Probably give her a heart attack, though."

Kate chuckled and shook her head before she looked to Jubilee. "I mean, Kurt and I take Tristan to his church on the way to ours. It might help."

Jubilee shrugged. "It might," she had to agree. She leaned back in her seat with her feet propped up. "I mean, it's one thing not to eavesdrop, but he just… _won't_."

"Maybe you need to try from a different angle," Logan said, his focus on an old copy of _Where The River Ends_ while he kept one arm around K.

"Well, see, that's the thing — I can totally see where he's coming from," Jubilee pointed out. "I don't like to use it either unless I have to."

"Yeah, but that's because you had the White Queen as your intro to telepathy coach," Logan said dryly.

"Point," Jubilee said, accentuating her words by pointing at Logan with a small grin.

"Put him in a position where he _has_ to use it," Logan said, shaking his head as if it was the simplest solution in the world.

"Yeah, that's going to happen sooner or later anyway," Kate said from where she was leaned back with some English essays. "What do you think?"

"Damsel in Distress scenario," Logan said confidently.

"That's much better than my 'wait until he's sixteen and dating and let him realize he wants to know if he's being strung along' option," Kate snorted.

"If we did that, I'd have to kick his ass and make him run at the same time while I pointed out how flamin' creepy that is," Logan said dryly.

"Like I said: much better option. Plus, you know that'll happen. What teenager _doesn't_ want to know if the guy or girl they like is interested?"

"One that's in love," Logan pointed out without missing a beat.

"Well, that explains everything about Chance and Elin, doesn't it," Kate shot back, also without missing a beat.

Logan looked up at her and snapped his book shut. "Yeah. _That's_ it."

"So, who's our damsel in distress?" Jubilee cut in. "Can I volunteer? I'm amazing at being snarky to bad guys."

"No," Logan said as he got on his feet. "Your damsel resume is too long as it is."

"Plus, you're too cute," Kate pointed out. "Too distracting."

"Pick out someone he's close to," K said. "Otherwise, it won't work."

"That's easy enough," Jubilee pointed out. "He and Jayce are pretty much never apart."

"The Dynamic Blonde Duo," Kate giggled.

"Let me know how it turns out," Logan said as he got to his feet, then headed toward the door.

"You don't want to run it?" Kate asked with one eyebrow raised. "Your idea, after all."

"Jubes is the one that knows what she's lookin' for," Logan replied.

"This is true," Jubilee agreed. "But … that kind of makes me the right person to play 'bad guy', doesn't it? I mean, I can't ask _you_ — that would be, like, master level telepathy, and he's not redheaded enough to be at that level," she added with a little giggle.

Logan looked incredibly unamused at that. "I think you can figure it out on your own."

"Right, so do you want to run it from the booth while I get Teeny Tiny Telepathic Tooth to get in my head?"

"I thought _you_ could do both at the same time," Logan told her.

"I mean, I _could_ ," Jubilee said with a shrug. "But then that means I'm outnumbered by _blondes_ , Wolvie. _Blondes_."

He stared at her for a long moment, only to answer as he rolled his eyes. " _Fine_."

Jubilee grinned at him and made sure to pop over to give him a squeeze. "Yay! Thanks," she said, grinning as she continued to bop right on out the door ahead of him.

Logan growled to himself as he headed down to the Danger Room's booth, where Scott was finishing up a sim with Cody. He dropped into the open chair and leaned back without a word, watching the way that Cody was wrapping up the whole affair. He was good, but he would still get frustrated with himself too quickly and wreck his focus, though it looked like he had finally built up a good rhythm, and he'd ended the sim on a high note.

Scott was sure to compliment Cody on the better focus as they headed out to meet up with Chloe, who had already showered and changed after her own session with her dad, though Logan's entrance to the booth hadn't gone unnoticed as, once Cody had hit the showers, Scott called up, "You need it for something or setting up for someone else?"

"Jubes and Tristan," Logan said. "Unless you're not done. Then I'll go."

Scott shook his head. "No, we were headed out anyway. What's the sim?"

"Modified Damsel in Distress."

"For a telepath?"

"Telepath that don't want to use his abilities." Logan said in a low rumble. "Not a big deal. Just gonna box him into doin' it."

Scott let out a little "huh" and then nodded. "Alright. Let me know how that works. I told the kids we'd go out after the sims."

"I'm sure you'll check the tape," Logan replied.

Scott nodded and then headed off, leaving Logan to set up for the sim in the meantime, while Jubilee was wrangling the two blondes they needed for this thing.

The set up was simple, of course. Jubilee would get to practice her evil monologue and show off her drama class skills as Tristan tried to find a way to get into her surface level thoughts to find the code needed to free Jayce. Meanwhile, Jayce would be staged in a Shi'ar bubble that had a countdown clock running. Should Tristan fail to get the code, the bubble would open, allowing a massive alien monster to reach into the bubble and snatch Jayce. By the time Logan had decided what to use, he was smirking to himself, knowing that Jayce would know exactly what kind of alien was trying to eat him.

He didn't have to wait long for Jubilee to gather up the boys and bring them in, and once the three of them were in the Danger Room, the doors locked behind them with an ominous clang just before Jayce was scooped up into the Shi'ar contraption.

Tristan, of course, didn't like the setup in the least and wrinkled his nose at Jubilee. "Why can't he just get out? He can phase!"

"Nope," Jubilee said, shaking her head as her short hair bounced with her. "He's totally powerless. Dampeners up for him and everything. The whole room he's in — and by extension, the Shi'ar cage — is totally phase proof. It's all you, little man," she said before she simply started the show, launching into her monologue, complete with dramatic little turns on her heel with her nose in the air as she promised that the fate of the _universe_ was at stake and no one could stop her. Complete with a maniacal laugh that went on to the point of coughing.

"Tone it back a little, Jubes," Logan said from the booth. "You need to be able to hover to pull that level of idiocy off."

Jubilee giggled and gave Logan a thumbs up before she cleared her throat and went back to her monologue, though it was obvious Tristan was still pretty uncomfortable with the setup until there was a rumbling growl from behind the door that held the alien monster, and both of the boys glanced at each other with wide eyes.

 _I am NOT fighting whatever is in there by myself, Tristan!_ Jayce projected to his friend urgently.

Tristan nodded quickly before he turned to Jubilee, who was still going on about how Jayce was _never_ going to get away or whatever. Logan could tell that the kid was trying to jump in this time, because it was the same look Tammy got whenever she was trying to use her telekinesis when she was wiped out.

The doors to the room Jayce was in bashed open, barely hanging off the hinges as the alien monster came out into the room. It was a massive beast - snarling with tentacles and eyes everywhere - and Jayce really went into a panic on seeing it. " _Tristan!_ This isn't funny! Get me out of here!"

"Trying!" Tristan called back- wide eyed at even seeing such a nasty looking beast as it slithered to Jace and was trying to open the bubble.

But after a long moment, Tristan broke into a triumphant grin and rushed over to the door to key in the code, which made the simulation _end_ just as the creature was roaring at a terrified Jayce. He was still pressed against the far side of the bubble when Tristan got down to him and cracked it open. By that time, Tristan was smiling as he pulled Jayce out of the bubble - with about twenty seconds to spare - as both of the boys looked relieved.

"Cutting it kind of close, weren't you, Tris?" Jayce barked out, still scared out of his mind at the alien beast.

"Hey, I got it, didn't I?" Tristan said. "You okay?"

Jayce nodded, and once it was clear that he really was, in fact, okay, Tristan picked himself up and dusted himself off and glared up at the booth. "That was dirty!"

"What's your point?" Logan asked easily. "The easy routes weren't working, so … turned the heat up a lil' bit. You were both safe."

"I already said I don't want to _use_ my powers," Tristan said angrily.

"And I already said you still need to know _how_ to anyhow," Logan replied. "Even if you don't wanna."

"Besides, you should wanna," Jayce pointed out, though he was glaring up at the booth too. "You scared the pants off of me!"

Logan was smirking lightly. "You both did fine for the first time around."

"You mean there's gonna be _more_ of these?" Jayce asked, his eyes wide and his jaw dropped.

Logan crossed his arms and leaned against the window frame. "Do you think you've both mastered everything yet?"

"You locked me in a room with a monster!" Jayce said, waving his hands in the air. "It was _drooling on my bubble!"_

"Sounds worse'n it was."

"He locked _me_ in a room with a dramatist," Tristan said with a quiet smirk.

"Woulda worked better if she was a vampire," Logan said under his breath with a little smirk Jubilee's way.

She laughed harder at that and then turned to the boys. "This really isn't too far from some of the crap we've put up with on the team, guys. Even if you're not on the team, you need to know this stuff and you need to be able to kick bad guy butt. Or alien monster tentacles." She grinned at them. "C'mon, boys; when I was your age, I could totally blast any bozos that came my way."

The boys glanced at each other for a moment and then both rolled their eyes almost in tandem. "Fine," Jayce said.


	2. The Hits Keep Coming

With all of the trouble that had been flying around since Canada had started a personal offensive against Logan, he was understandably on edge when K left the house without a set itinerary that she was willing to share. The missions she was taking solo were lasting longer than she'd anticipated nearly every single time. Which did absolutely nothing for Logan's frame of mind.

K was a solid twelve hours past her expected return when Logan had decided to head out and find her — and Scott wasn't stopping him, so it was a solid measure of how out of hand it had gotten recently. Particularly when the response before had been 'wait and see; she checked in when she was supposed to'.

Logan had gotten changed into black fatigues of his own and was ready to pull the hood over his head on the way out the door when he _finally_ heard the mini jet coming in. He took a few steps back, already primed for a fight as she landed, and after she'd done a hasty and weary look over the jet, she climbed out looking like she'd been through the ringer.

"Please don't start," K said after she came over to him and kissed his cheek before he could really get mad.

"Twelve hours," Logan growled out. "Where the hell were you?"

K sighed as she took in his completely irritated expression. "Scouting turned a little more serious."

"And you didn't call for backup?" he half-growled back, and it was crystal clear that whatever she said wasn't going to get him to step back or calm down.

"Please, relax. Whatever you think it is, it's not. I'm done with that group for now, so just …"

"You're gonna trigger one of these idiots to make it worse if you keep it up," he said, leaning in closer. "Everything on the intel is sayin' the same thing. They're lookin' for _you_."

"No they're not."

"They don't know it's you, but they're still trying to catch you at it," he replied, irritated. "You gotta back off. Let 'em breathe."

She met his gaze and squared up, still tired, but not about to back down any more than he was. "No. Not with what I'm finding from these people. They're trying to use kids - little ones. They find someone with a positive test on the gene and they try to force the mutation, so no, sweetheart. I'm not stopping."

Logan paused, but it was clear he still wasn't happy about it. "You can't go out without backup anymore."

"If something bad were to happen, I'm sure that we'd know," K said, trying to get him to relax.

So it was almost like the perfect cue when there was a flash of light in the hallway, and Billy appeared, looking a bit frazzled as he readjusted his cape around his neck. Logan was already swearing up a blue streak, and getting wound up and ready to tear into K freshly before Billy spoke up.

"Woah, hey, um, no," Billy said quickly, holding up his hands. "I'm not here for you. Don't… do that."

"Don't do _what_?" Logan almost snarled.

"That," Billy said with a sigh before he turned back toward the hallway. "I'm not here as the Demiurge, so you can relax."

Logan growled and was clearly still bristling. "Then why'd you come to the hangar?"

"Honestly a matter of privacy," Billy said, then started shooing them both. "So if you two could take the five steps out the door you were about to take…"

K nodded and took a hold of Logan's arm, whispering to him to relax, and she'd explain it all upstairs as she dragged him along. But they hadn't gotten too far before they spotted the person Billy was going to meet — a distraught Kate coming in from the entryway.

It was clear she was headed for the hangar, but when she saw K and Logan, she ended up just grabbing hold of K and more or less using her as a shoulder to cry on.

"Sweetheart," K said, rolling with it and pulling her into a hug.

Kate clutched onto K harder before she said very quietly, "Susie died."

K's lips parted, and she doubled down in the hug, going so far as to kiss the side of Kate's head before she whispered to her, "I am _so_ sorry."

"She made it longer… they only said six months and she made it nine," Kate muttered. "We thought she was on an upswing."

"Doesn't make it any easier, I know," she said, though she glanced up at Logan, who was now quietly standing watch with much of the wind out of his sails.

"She even got birthday presents for the girls," Kate said. She straightened up and tried to wipe her eyes, but it was obvious she was devastated. "I… why are you in black?"

"I look good in black," K said, as if it was the only answer. "Slimming."

Kate shook her head at K and then gave her another hug. "I should… Billy said he'd meet up with me…"

"He's in the hangar," Logan said. "Caught him adjusting his cape."

Kate almost couldn't help but smirk. "Drama queen," she said fondly before she wrapped Logan in a hug as well, simply because he was there and because she needed it — and ended up staying there for a long time too as he curled around her and promised her it would be alright. He was sure to hold her tight and lean into it, doing his best to be steady for her without another word spoken until she was ready to let go.

Kate gave him one last squeeze before she stepped back. "Thanks. I — thanks," she said, giving K one more squeeze on her way past.

"You know where to find us," Logan said as the two of them finally headed down the hall again.

* * *

The funeral for Susan had been small and quick — since in the circles that Kate and Susan had traveled in, there really wasn't much use for those friendships at times like this. It was mostly Kate and her family and Heather Bishop, for some reason, who had shown up and hugged Kate and told her that she really had liked the Bishop sisters before she left some flowers and went on her way.

Most of the Wagners were feeling pretty down after the funeral — even if Susan hadn't exactly been close to them until the very end. It was always hard to lose someone, and watching the effect it had on Kate was definitely dragging the rest of them down further, since it was hard to know what to _say_.

Sweet little Kaleb was working with the bamfs to make sure that Kate always had someone to give her a solid hug, and Kari had found a beautiful picture of Kate and her sister at Susan's first wedding — the one where Kate had met the Young Avengers — that she had decided to do in acrylic, putting aside her Chance and Elin project. And of course, Kurt was rarely away from Kate, leaving her a rose on her desk in her office when he couldn't be there for whatever reason.

But then it was like one hit too many when Kate picked up the phone when the adoption agency called, hoping that it was good news… only to find that it was entirely the opposite.

"After a review of your application… I'm sorry, Mrs. Wagner, but we can't send any of our children into your home and trust that they're going to be safe."

Kate felt her grip tighten on the phone she was holding up to her ear. "What are you talking about?" she said quietly. "We — we researched your agency… you don't … this can't be a mutant thing— "

"It's not, Mrs. Wagner. It's that your home also happens to be a target, and frankly, all things considered, it would be irresponsible of us to send anyone there."

"Irr— _Irresponsible_?" Kate repeated, her eyes going wide and then all at once narrowing into slits as she got mad. "Listen, lady, I've raised four _beautiful_ kids here, not to mention the other families that have grown up here— "

"Mrs. Wagner, I really don't have any say in the final decisions. Personally, I found your family and your support system to be above the bar. I'm just telling you why this ruling was made. I am truly sorry, Mrs. Wagner. If there was something I could do, I would. Please, take care."

Kate glared at the phone for a long moment before she let out all her breath. "Alright," she said heavily. "Alright. We'll … figure something out," she said and then put her head on her desk when she hung up with the agency.

Of course, there was no way that Kurt could have known that while he was getting some lunch and checking on the kids — mostly making sure Kade and the bamfs hadn't burned the house down — Kate had gotten that phone call, so when he came in to find Kate with her head resting on her arms, he thought it was because of Susan.

But when Kurt rested a hand on her shoulder, Kate turned and then leaned into him and started to fall apart as she frantically tried to tell him what had happened, though it came out in such a rush that it took a few tries, and then the look of honest shock and devastation was easy to see on his face as well.

He had just managed to get her to calm down and pulled her into a more solid hug when there was a familiar sort of flash of light, though it wasn't Billy. Instead, Loki was standing there for a moment with Cassie Lang, though he was gone in an instant to leave the blonde behind.

Jubilee, America, and K all ended up in the room via similar flashes, and for a long moment, it was just a matter of all four of the women hugging the stuffing out of the devastated pair until Kurt finally explained, more or less, what had happened — that the agency had told them 'no.'

All of them shared looks of stunned shock at the news, and K frowned as America and Cassie mobbed Kate to bury her in a group hug. "We're taking over our suite," K decided as she gave Kurt a long, tight hug. "Can you get all of us up there and, I don't know, drag your blood brother out?"

Kurt nodded wordlessly for a long moment before he disappeared with K — and let her sit down before he got the rest of the ladies, bringing them up to Logan and K's suite as K had already started up a movie night of some of the best-worst action movies.

Of course, in the short span of time that she'd had alone with Logan, she explained to him what was going on and texted James and Elin to recruit them into dealing with the other Wagner kids and to watch the door so no one bothered Kate's support system. It was all covered. And all that was missing by that point was one of Kurt's bamfs who'd been sent for Clint — and pizza.

Which really only left Kurt outside of the bedroom in the living area of the suite — looking considerably more shocked than before, now that he didn't have something immediately ahead of him to do and now that Kate was being cared for.

"C'mon, Elf," Logan said as he put his arm around Kurt's shoulders. "Let's get you outta here."

Kurt nodded quietly as he let Logan bring him to sit down, and he was quiet for a long while before he finally turned to Logan and wrapped him in a wordless hug.

Logan simply went with it, knowing exactly how much Kurt had been looking forward to another little one to take care of, though their little back and forth was a lot quieter than what was happening with the veritable slumber party one door over.

Of course, it bolstered Kurt's mood significantly when their intrepid reporter bamf showed up with his nice camera and a sly "bamf" before he showed the two men the pictures he had from the room next door — of Clint surrounded by ladies stealing the pizza right out from under his nose… of Lucky Jr. curled up at Kate's feet and Princess the cat curled up in her arms so that she was completely covered in fuzzy snuggles… of the toenail painting (Clint included) the bamfs were offering… all of it.

"I was gonna complain about him being with all the girls in my room, but now …" Logan tipped his head. "I think he's in the right group."

Kurt chuckled at that. "And you don't want your toenails painted, _mein Freund_?" he had to tease.

"I really, really don't," Logan chuckled.

Kurt couldn't help but laugh at Logan before he reached out and rested a hand on his friend's arm. "Thank you," he said quietly.

"Anytime," Logan said. "Even if these people are total idiots."

"We'll try again elsewhere, I'm sure," Kurt said with a tight smile before he let his shoulders drop. "It's a common problem — usually, not this far in."

Logan nodded, though it was clear he didn't have clue one as to where to start on that one, since any adoptions he'd done were purely unofficial and generally decided by the adoptee.

"Perhaps people simply aren't ready yet," Kurt said.

"I'm havin' less and less tolerance for that particular phrase," Logan said.

"The older I get, the more I tend to agree," Kurt admitted.

Logan drew in a deep breath and leaned back. "Well. As I understand it, K's got the kids set to deal with each other for the night. So you're free to let the demon out if you need to."

Kurt chuckled at that. "I was going to ask you to drink with me," he admitted.

"I'd kinda figured as much," Logan said with a nod. "Pick your spot, and we'll kill a couple of bottles."

Kurt smiled at that and then disappeared with his best friend in a poof of blue.

* * *

"So, what, you ditched me to sit in the hallway and read?" Chance teased as he sat down next to Elin where she was seated outside of the Howletts' suite.

Elin gave him a little smile. "Guard duty," she said. "Are you here on official business, just to say hello, or do I need to treat you like a hostile?"

"Oh, definitely a hostile," he teased.

She smiled his way, then leaned in to give him a long kiss. "You don't look like a hostile, Sweet Summers."

He grinned at her. "Nah, I guess not," he said. "Whatcha guarding? Don't tell me if it's your parents working on number five, because I do _not_ want to know that."

"Oh … no, that's … no. That is a whole argument — and I don't think there is any give either way — so no." She shook her head lightly and set her book aside. "They're consoling Wagners."

Chance's eyebrows shot up. "The Aunt Susan thing is still that bad?"

"I think this is something else," she said. "I didn't get full details — just that I had to keep people from bothering them." She thumbed at the door next to her. "Mom has Kate and Dad has Kurt. James is with the smaller ones."

"Well, you look like you could use some company," he said. "I'm not half bad at guard duty, you know."

"Oh yeah?" she said, scooting a little closer so he had to pick up his arm and make room for her to curl in. "What if there's a test?"

"Well, I bet I could take on an overly affectionate ... " He paused and then let out a laugh. "Actually, you know what, it just occurred to me the most likely scenario here is that my mom wants to come check on people, so I'll leave that to you."

"But she's _your_ mom," she argued. "She clearly likes you much better."

Chance grinned at her. "Well, yeah, but I also have a hard time telling her 'no'... She's my _mom_."

She nodded slowly. "Honestly … I don't know who knows what's going on. So she might not be a hazard. But … if I have to take your mom on — your dad is all yours."

"Hey, I've had practice on that one," Chance said with a smirk.

"Well, I don't like telling _him_ no, so …"

"So look at that: we're perfectly matched to take them on," Chance said with an easy smile. "Doesn't surprise me, though. We're kinda perfect together; you know that, right?"

She smiled a little wider and kissed him, since she was pretty sure that was what he was angling for anyhow. "Biased. Opinion."

"That's the whole point," he said, grinning as he pulled her into a slightly longer kiss.

And that was the scene when Scott came down the hall to see the two of them wrapped up in each other. He cleared his throat loudly and then looked over the two of them with a small frown. "What's going on here?"

"I don't know," Elin said, ignoring the fact that Chance was a little bit red-faced. "I was told to sit out here and keep anyone from bothering Mom and Kate. I'm pretty sure Dad and Kurt are off … _somewhere_ … drinking."

"What happened?" Scott asked, suddenly more concerned than before when he heard what was going on.

Elin shrugged, but before she could dig the hole deeper for them, the reporter bamf showed up with fresh pictures to share. He handed Elin the camera and chattered away about the facial mask that the bamfs had talked Clint into, giggling impishly about the fact that the food coloring in it would probably be hard to wash off.

"You can't do that to him," Elin said, shaking her head before she passed the camera over to Scott. "It looks like a slumber party?"

Scott raised both eyebrows at the pictures and then looked up at the bamf before he shook his head. "Well, whatever is going on…"

"I'm sure you'll hear all about it," Elin said. "But if you happen to bump into Dad and Kurt? They'd probably fill you in quicker than the bamfs will."

Scott nodded thoughtfully. "They're probably down at Harry's," he said, though that was all he got out before the bamf grabbed hold of him and disappeared with him — and Chance burst out laughing.

"You really can't tell him no, can you?"

"He's so … I don't want him having a heart attack on my account," she said with a smile. "And it could have gone either way." She grinned wider. "I was ready with a comeback if he asked why we were in the hall — and there is no way I couldn't have said it."

"Okay, now I'm curious," Chance said with an easy grin.

She looked far too much like her mother for a moment as the trouble danced in her eyes. "I was going to point out that at least we weren't behind closed doors."

Chance blinked at her for a moment before he burst into another laugh and swept her into a kiss. "He'll get used to it," he promised her. "He'll have to, because I'm never letting you go," he added with an even wider smile.

"Uh huh," she said, nodding lightly, with one eyebrow raised.

"He will," Chance promised. "Mom already _adores_ you."

"She likes just about anyone that you go out with," Elin said.

"Yeah, well, I mean she _adores_ you. There's levels to this, El."

"If you say so, Sweet Summers."

He just shook his head at her and grinned before he swept her up into another long kiss.

* * *

When Scott arrived in Harry's bar, he wasn't surprised at all to find that Kurt and Logan were already in a booth and well into their whiskey, their heads together to indicate that whatever they were talking about, it was a serious conversation.

"Get a glass from Doris and come on over, Slim," Logan said when he saw him considering the two of them. "We're gonna be a while."

Scott raised his eyebrows at the pair of them before he took a seat. "What's going on? Elin's on guard duty outside of your room."

Logan nodded. "Then she's doin' what we asked. Keepin' Kate from being bothered."

"What happened?" Scott asked, leaning forward in obvious concern as he looked toward Kurt, who let out a weary sort of sigh.

"We won't be adopting," he said simply. "At least not with this agency. Their home study decided we weren't… _safe_ for a little one," he added, his expression shifting to pure frustration at the end.

Scott stared at Kurt. "I'm sorry," he said, not sure what else there was _to_ say.

Logan poured Kurt a new measure of whiskey then reached over to do the same for Scott. "So, we're drinking."

"Yeah, I see that," Scott said, shaking his head as he looked between the two of them. "I really am sorry, Kurt. I know you were looking forward to another one."

Kurt nodded and let out a long sigh. "Yes, we were," he said.

"The girls are watchin' crappy movies and lettin' the bamfs terrorize Clint to keep Kate occupied," Logan said. "And Elin's watchin' the door while James keeps the smaller Wagner kids company. They like workin' him over anyhow."

"Elin _and Chance_ are watching the door," Scott corrected him.

Logan let out a little noise that was totally non-committal either way.

"You know they're getting serious," Scott said suddenly after a long pause.

Logan kept his gaze on his hands as he slowly tipped his head to the side. "Yeah. Been workin' up to it for a while."

"You alright with that?" Scott asked him outright.

"The hell do you want me to do about it, Scott?"

"Stay outta the way, that's what," Scott shot back, surprised into the truth.

Logan let out a little laugh. "What do you think I've been doin'? They've been sleeping together since before they got snatched by Canada."

Clearly, this was news to Scott, but before he could react, Kurt slammed his hand down on the table and sat up, looking completely dumbfounded. "They've been _what_?" He let out a scoffing noise and looked as if he was simply grasping for the right words, getting completely flustered. "I … this is _outrageous!_ She's … she's … _doing … with him?_ "

Logan, for a moment, looked almost amused as Kurt sputtered and then regained control of himself when he blinked and seemed to realize that Scott was there still … staring at him. He cleared his throat and sat up a bit straighter, lifting his chin slightly. "Of course, there's nothing wrong with your … _predatory_ son."

Scott gave Kurt an incredibly dry look that was only met with a more scandalized stare before he shook his head. "Logan," Scott said at last, slowly, "I just don't want his heart to get broken."

Logan watched him for a long time as Kurt slammed his hand on the table again, wordlessly protesting open-mouthed at Scott before Logan said anything. And while Kurt was drunkenly acting the part of the outraged father, Logan was trying to make his point clear before Scott got into the bottle with Kurt enough that he'd forget it. " _He's_ not gonna have that trouble, but her?" He shook his head lightly. "Pretty much a sure thing at this point."

"What are you _talking_ about — Chance would never do anything to hurt her."

"Nothing in his power, no," Logan said, hoping that was enough for Scott to catch.

"So what's the problem then?" Scott shot back.

"The _problem_ is that, one way or another, if it's in ten years or fifty — she's gonna be alone, and there's not a thing about it that he can do to fix it. She'll lose him from something stupid with the job, or she'll have to watch him fade away." He pushed his glass away from himself and fixed Scott with as serious and genuine an expression as Scott had ever seen from him. "I'm not gonna sugarcoat it. This powerset? It sucks. And no matter how many times you live through it, you don't ever get over it."

Scott stared at Logan for a long moment before he let out a breath and dropped his gaze to his drink. "Yeah, I know."

"It's one thing when it's a vague possibility," Logan pointed out. "But it's something else entirely when you know… you _know_ what the outcome is."

Scott nodded, falling quiet, though it was Kurt who leaned onto Logan's shoulder with a heavy sigh. "She is strong and _stubborn_ ," he said softly. "And my goddaughter. And she is happy."

"And you're _drunk_ ," Logan said, shaking his head at him.

Kurt nodded seriously. "I am," he agreed.

Scott couldn't help but smirk at Kurt. "He's not wrong, though. She's something special, Logan."

"'Course she is. Takes after her mother," he said with a shrug.

"Sure does," Scott said with a smirk.

"Means Chance has an uphill battle on his hands," Logan said.

"He knows," Scott said. "I'm sure he does."

"Remember," Kurt said, grinning at them both, "I'm an _officiant_."

"Yeah, okay. You know what else you are? You're cut off," Logan said, pulling the whiskey bottle from him. "Enough of that."

"You two have your heads so far in tomorrow that you've already killed off Chance. _I_ would like to be there for the fun part!" Kurt argued with a crooked sort of smirk.

Logan covered his eyes with one hand and leaned into it as he let out a breath. "Great. Here we go."

"At least he's not upset anymore," Scott pointed out low under his breath.

"He's got himself talking about weddings," Logan said. "If we turn it toward Krissy and Sying … he'll be back into the grump."

"We shouldn't do that, then. Not tonight anyhow."

"Coffee, then," Logan said, nodding his head before he checked the time. "And I'm thinkin' it's about time to break up the slumber party. This one's gonna want to get a hold of his Hawk."

"Feeling's probably mutual," Scott said with a smirk as he and Logan helped Kurt to his feet.

"Get your little demons, Elf. You're in no shape to 'port the three of us anywhere without killin' us."

Kurt grinned at Logan, then nodded his agreement, though when the bamfs showed up, he was sure to wrap Logan in a warm hug before they headed back. "Thank you, _mein Freund_."

"Yeah, love you too, Elf."


	3. K To The Rescue

Time was once again ticking away, and though Kurt hadn't been foolish enough to drop the notion of wedding plans around Logan or Scott while he was sober, there were certainly looks that both men were familiar with when the two teenagers were spotted together. Which was often enough.

But even without that weighing on his mind, Logan once again found himself in an awkward and irritating position as he stared at the newspaper he'd read through twice already. Yet still, there was no sign or word from his wife. K had blown her record twelve hours of radio silence past a check-in only to text James and ask him to run some information for her. He made sure that it was handled quickly enough, even if James refused to tell either Scott or Logan what was going on.

So that really had Logan ticked off at most of his own family, if he added in the fact that Elin and Chance had been sure to tell him that they were headed off to shop for the upcoming formal/costume party.

When James came rocketing through the kitchen, it did more than just raise a few eyebrows, but still, all he did for their questioning expressions was to shout over his shoulder 'nothing!' as he hurried on his way. They all knew he was doing something for his mother that required more technological savvy than what she had. Which was saying something, considering the places she'd been breaking into.

Right about the time that Logan was ready to grab a hold of the kid and work him over, the breaking news banner started up across the screen. "Oh, crap," he breathed out, glaring at the television as they started detailing how a massive military complex in Newfoundland was currently dealing with some sort trouble. The footage they were airing showed a building in the distance that was clearly on fire. The amount of smoke billowing up was impressive, and heavy gunfire was heard even through the horrible news feed in the background.

"Scott," Logan called out, knowing that he wasn't too far out — and had been nervously pacing waiting to hear back from K himself.

It took almost no time for Scott to come rushing into the room, and when he saw the news, he started swearing outright.

Shortly after that, Logan set his mug down and stormed off, tracking James down. "You need to tell me where she is and what the hell is going on _now_."

"She's fine," James promised, glancing up at his father, though he was clearly typing a mile a minute. "Really. She's fine. They're shooting at ghosts." Logan gave him a dry look and took a few steps closer as James glanced up nervously. "No, really - she's fine, I _swear_ ," James said. "She's got me doing a search, she's on her way now, she just had to re-route to come in from a different direction."

"How long?" Logan demanded with a growl, knowing that Scott was going to be taking up residence next to James in no time flat.

"Maybe ... " James glanced at the clock, though he kept typing. "Maybe like … twenty minutes? Ish? I'm not entirely sure. But she's definitely on the way here."

Logan growled low and turned on his heel, set to pace and let himself get ticked off before he put an end to the ridiculous secret missions K had been running. When he passed Scott, he thumbed over his shoulder to indicate which room to find James so he didn't have to go searching himself. From there, it was just a matter of pacing. And growling. And getting completely pissed off by the time K _finally_ showed up.

To Logan, it seemed like it was taking her _forever_ to get out of the jet, to the point that he was barely holding back a snarl. Though that instinct wasn't exactly pulled back when she finally came into view and he could see clearly that she'd gotten shot up - and _burned_ \- and was moving a lot slower than he was comfortable with.

"What the hell were you _thinking_ ," he managed to growl out between clenched teeth before K looked up at him and took the jacket she'd had draped over her shoulder off — to reveal a very small, sleeping newborn.

"Not yet," she said. "I'm going to Hank first." She walked slowly, and it only took a moment for Logan to realize that the little one was making little noises with almost every step. Squeaky, tiny sounds that didn't exactly come across as the healthiest or happiest of little ones.

His anger wasn't gone, but it had definitely dropped off by the time they got to the lab and he even held the door open for the two of them and called out so K wouldn't have to. "Henry, we got something for you."

The good doctor came rushing over, clearly having expected something of the sort considering the news reports, but while he did look concerned when he saw that K had been badly burned, his expression shifted entirely when he saw the little one in her arms. "Oh, my stars and garters."

"I couldn't find anything as far as her vital statistics went, but she matched up to a mutant subject that was recently killed," K said, trying to keep it as professional as possible as she gently handed the little one off for Henry to examine. "I didn't see anything there to feed her with. I think they were just setting her aside to die."

Hank frowned and tutted as he got to work examining the little girl, already muttering that she was far too small, when Scott got down to the lab. "What were you doing?" he asked K immediately when he saw the state of her.

K turned his way, biting her lip. "What I always do," she said. "They had the building rigged to blow if they were infiltrated, though." She gestured to herself quickly. "I did what I could to block her, but …"

"Block who?" Scott asked.

K stepped out of the way to make sure Scott had a clear view of Hank as he made a face at the now-squeaking little one.

Scott's anger and concern shifted entirely when he saw the little one. "Where…"

"Dead," K said. "That's what I had James digging up. Looking for any familial connections."

"She can't be more than a couple days old," Scott said.

"I won't explain how I found her right now," K said. "But the mother is dead for sure. They killed her - or an experiment failed … no telling."

Scott stared at Henry and the little girl for a long time before he finally turned toward K. "You didn't find anything at all?" he asked.

"Oh her? No. On her mother and the details they had on her and her background - that's where I left James. He knows his way around their systems."

Scott let out a breath and then nodded. "I want to know the details on this one, K. It was on national news. You and James - War Room. As soon as Hank okays you."

She let out a huff but stopped short of arguing it when she saw that the consensus was so clearly against her. "Fine. I'll just grab some scrubs and get my head shaved," she said with a sigh as she headed for the showers, snatching a set of scrubs on the way.

By the time K was ready to go, Hank had finished examining the little one as well and agreed with K's consensus that the little girl had simply been abandoned and needed some serious attention. Food obviously was the most important thing, though with how small and frail she was, Hank had something a little easier than a bottle for her to use.

She pointedly ignored the notion of a debrief until she and Henry managed to get the little girl fed properly, then she simply readjusted so that she could give the baby some skin contact as she held her and let her sleep. "Nothing against fuzzy, Dr. Blue," K said, draping the light blanket over the little one. "But I'm going the other way today."

"Not at all," Hank said, with a little bit of a twinkle in his eyes.

She looked up at him with a raised eyebrow and pointed a finger his way. "Don't start."

"I haven't started a thing," Hank said with a little smile. "Besides, don't you have a fearless leader to report to?"

"Yeah, I'm sure the baby won't slow him down at all … until he gets the baby face in gear so … what? Five, ten minutes tops?"

"Best speak quickly," Hank advised.

She couldn't help but give him a smile before she headed to the War Room, with the little one in tow. "Alright, Scotty, where do you need me to start?"

"Why don't you start from the beginning? I know the mission went off track when you found her, but I want to know what happened."

"Mission didn't go off track until I was done," K said. "It all was according to plan. I got into their servers - had the transmission running to the isolated one James set up that Stark has yet to hack into. Everything had transferred. Everything. Then I got down to the lab; they were mid-way through an experiment on some guy that was not doing well. I killed the scientists before an alarm could be raised … looked for anyone to get out … had them on the way, the few that were there, and as I was headed back to set a charge in the lab where all of their samples were stored, I found her." She took a breath to clear her head and then dove right back in. "Scent matched up with a dead girl." She shrugged again and shook her head. "So I made a note of her numbers so we could dig for family and headed out. As far as I can figure, the little one made a noise that breached the threshold of the sensors in the room I was in on my way out, and the next thing I know - the whole place was blowing up."

K gestured to the left side of her head, where the skin was still pink, but all there. "I blocked her from the white phosphorus."

Scott was frowning hard through the entire debrief, especially as the little one kept snuggling K tiredly, one hand resting on K at all times. "And that's when the news reports started up."

"The gunfire started after I was already in the jet. I think they were sure whoever did it was pinned down still."

Scott nodded for a long time and then let out his breath. "You can't go on any more of these. Not for a while. When they don't find you there…"

"They'll find plenty of bodies," K pointed out.

"They'll find bodies of people that they had records for. They'll be _looking_ for someone they don't. And all it takes is one smart person to put together _why_ there's no body there and they'll be waiting with adamantium cuffs the next time."

She nodded to herself. "Yeah, I know." She looked a down over the outcome of it as she leaned her head over slightly.

"Alright then." Scott looked toward James. "So, what have you found on our friend?"

"Well … they had high hopes on her," James said. "Both parents were mutants - both of them in this program - and she … is not." He ran his hands through his hair and looked over at his mother for a moment. "On the other side of things? Everything on their servers came through clean. I've got a program sifting through everything - and I made sure that whatever security footage they might get a hold of shows a big six foot four, musclebound dude in black. Advanced Photoshop is fun. Anything I couldn't edit is now gone. No way they'd know it was _her._ "

"At least there's that," Scott said. "Any luck on the baby's family?"

"Both parents were … ah, well, they didn't have very good records of mutants? Like … they just didn't want anyone to know, so no. There aren't any records on them, but to be honest, a lot of their acquisitions were from orphanages fifteen … twenty years ago, so you know. If grandma and grandpa are around, they're assholes that dropped their kids at an orphanage for being a mutant. Or whatever."

"The girl has no birth record," James clarified. "At all. And you'd probably play hell explaining where she came from anyhow at this point, though as far as the ID of bodies goes, if they were spraying white phosphorus, they'll have a very hard time identifying corpses too."

Scott nodded slowly. "Alright. James, let's keep monitoring them and make sure they don't look where they shouldn't be."

"I've got it set to track back to whoever looks into it so we can see who's connected. And I've got flags that'll let me know if they dig around too close to anything." He shrugged and crossed his arms. "It's covered."

Scott couldn't help but smirk James' way. "Good. Thanks," he said before he turned to K. "It's not like the X-Men don't have experience with people showing up who can't be explained with papers. I can talk to Peter Parker and get things sorted out for her."

She nodded and looked down at the little one. "Yeah, he'll be a sucker for this one," she agreed. "Soft red curls…"

"We can do the same with her as we did with Jolie - let her choose," Scott said, shaking his head at K.

K smirked up at him and shook her head slowly. "No, Scotty. She's too young to put into a toss up. She needs stability now."

"Sounds like you want her," Scott said.

"Not me," she said, shaking her head with a little smile his way. "But I know someone who really _needs_ her." She got to her feet and walked over to Scott, tipping her so he could take a better look. "What do you think? You think they'll argue with me over it? Because if it's a problem, yeah. I'll keep her."

Scott let out a breath of a laugh as he looked down at the little girl. "No, I'm pretty sure they'll be thrilled," he had to agree. He paused and then smirked up at her. "Mind if I come?"

"I wish you would," she said. "You can explain my mental patient look."

"Like they'll notice once they see the little one."

"I can hope," she said with a smirk. "Still beats the half-charred look, though."

Scott smirked at that as they headed out. "She have a name?" he asked as he held the door open for her.

"I guess that'll be up to whoever keeps her," K said.

"Uh-huh," Scott said, the smirk widening a bit.

"I did _not_ name her, Scott."

"Uh-huh," he said.

She chuckled and shook her head. "Just for that, if they don't want her, I'm naming her for your ex-wife. Just to be a pain."

"Good name," Scott said with a smirk.

She couldn't help but laugh at that and shake her head. "You're terrible."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Scott said, the smirk breaking into a smile.

"He says with the baby face in full force," K said to the little girl. "Don't trust him like this."

"Hey, I'm allowed," Scott pointed out. "And I haven't _said_ anything."

"You don't have to when you're doing … that." She looked him up and down once with a little frown. "Stop it."

Scott grinned wider at her and shook his head as he opened the door to the elevator. "I don't know, K - hard to stop what you keep telling me is a reflex."

"I haven't hit you yet … that could be a reflex that I've managed to suppress."

"You're not going to hit him," James said from her other side, shaking his head. "He can't help that he's so squishy."

When the three of them stepped out of the elevator, they found Logan headed their way with a tiny smirk as he shook his head and waited for them to meet him. "Shut up," K said, meeting his gaze.

"I didn't say a word."

"You don't have to. I can see what you're thinking, and you need to just … not."

But that only got Logan to smirk a little wider at her and put his arm around her as he looked over at the sleeping newborn.

"What?" K said, turning his way with a look that was clearly a challenge, but Logan shook his head, letting the smirk stretch into a little smile, and K let out a huff of pure frustration when he leaned over a little and kissed her temple.

"Nothin'," Logan said, and the smile was evident, even in his voice, though that only got K to sound more frustrated as they made their way up to the kitchen.

"You probably need to refuel," James said to his mother, though he was trying hard to keep a straight face, knowing full well what his father was chuckling about.

"I'll take care of that, sweetheart," Logan said, still smirking to himself in spite of K's glare. He looked down at the little redhead and shook his head with a self satisfied sound that had K bristling his way as the group stepped into the kitchen and Logan kissed the side of her head. "I'll bring you something to eat."

He walked further into the kitchen, leaving her with Scott and James as the three of them headed over to the table. "He's terrible," K grumbled.

"Do you need anything else?" James asked before he moved the blanket away from the little girl's face and couldn't help but mimic his father's amusement.

"No. I'm good for now," she swore before James gave the little one a kiss on the forehead and headed out.

"Then I'll go see how that program is doing," James called out on his way out, though he did greet Kate and Kurt as they turned the corner toward the kitchen.

Of course, when Kate saw the shaved head look K was sporting, she stopped totally short and blurted out, "What the actual heck?"

"New look; you hate it, don't you?" K said, though she still hadn't changed yet from the scrubs, so her 'mental patient' description was pretty spot on.

"No, but _what the actual heck_?" Kate said again, as Kurt chuckled at her and kissed her forehead before he teleported to sit beside K - and looked over her shoulder at the little one after a quick double take.

"Is _this_ where you disappeared to?" he asked softly, with one eyebrow raised.

"Um … sort of?" K said, pulling an almost grimace of a smile off. "Totally unrelated, but serious thought. I have a proposition for you two if you're still interested in a little girl …"

Kurt's tail went totally still as he stared at her openly, and Kate very nearly tripped over herself rushing over to K to see the little girl for herself and almost hiss out, " _Are you serious_?"

"She had been left to die. No paperwork on her, so far no family to be found - that's where James was going: to triple check it and to notify Peter that some things needed to be arranged," K said as she moved the blanket back to let them see the little girl's face and the soft red curls a little better. "No one knows she exists."

"She's beautiful," Kurt said softly in a heavy voice. " _Ein Engel vom Himmel_."

K looked up at him and shifted to tip the little one into his arms. "Try her out. Tell me if she fits in your arms right."

Kurt's lips were still parted in pure shock as he gently took the little girl and ever so carefully brushed a hand over the curls, though K could see the moment he went from shock to awe when his tail started to sway behind him again.

Kate, on the other hand, was absolutely not going to be able to hold the little girl for a while even if Kurt had been willing to hand her over. She'd sunk into the nearest chair and started to _cry_ , so Kurt had a monopoly on the tiny redhead for the moment.

K got up and crossed over a little closer to wrap Kate up in a hug and whisper to her. "You can say no, if you'd like, but I honestly thought you'd like a brand new little girl. And out of everyone here, you two would be my first choice for her parents. There is no one she'd be safer with … except maybe Logan and me."

Kate simply turned and wrapped K up in a tighter hug and cried harder. "She's so perfect," she managed to get out.

K smiled at that and kissed the side of Kate's head. "She hasn't been named yet. Oh, and Kate … I thought you'd like this part: she's _not_ a mutant."

"Oh," Kate said quietly. "You brought me a Hawkeye," she said, burying her face further into K's chest.

"I brought you something a little luckier than a Hawkeye, I think," K replied, resting her hand on Kate's head. "Everything she's been through in her short life … and she didn't have a scratch on her. I figured a Hawkeye would need a bandage by now."

"Nonsense," Kurt said with a smile. "There is nothing luckier than a Hawkeye."

"I'm going to go ahead and argue that right now," K said before she tipped her chin up toward Scott, who was simply soaking up all of it. "That one wanted to wait and have her pick her own parents. Not that I think she'd pick differently."

"Gotta agree with her there," Scott said with a smile as he watched the scene and then stepped closer to rest his hand on Kurt's shoulder and break into an honest grin. "If you didn't want her, K did."

"Of course," K said with an easy shrug. "First refusal to the rescuer. But Scott would have fought you for her, I'm sure."

Scott chuckled as Kate finally got herself together enough to sit beside Kurt and gently take the little girl into her arms. "She's small," she said softly.

"She's just a couple of days old," K said. "And she's a little weak. Henry has a special feeding system for her - and he's scrambling to make sure she has everything down there that she might need, but she ate well enough earlier. I think she'll be fine with you two mooning over her like that."

Kurt simply reached over and pulled K into a long hug now that his arms were empty. "Thank you," he breathed out. "She's the perfect fit."

"You're very welcome," K replied, giving him a squeeze. "You two really are the best people for the job, after all."

It wasn't too long before Logan came out of the kitchen with a plate full of food for K, and he simply slid it in front of her and took the seat next to her, smirking to himself as Kate and Kurt got acquainted with the little one, in awe at her little upturned nose, her soft curls, her rosebud mouth, and her _long,_ spindly fingers.

The room was quiet, and when the silence beyond the little grins, oohs, and aahs was finally broken by the small girl's squeaky little cry, the two of them stood up and headed right down to the lab, leaving K with Logan and Scott.

Scott was still smirking to himself, and Logan's smile had gotten a little more crooked as he quietly kept her company until she finally let out a breath and turned his way. "What."

Logan shook his head lightly and smiled wider. "Nothing."

"No really. What."

"I'm just sayin'," Logan said, chuckling to himself. "You … _you_ brought home a _baby_. That's gotta mean somethin'."

She met his gaze and stared back at him for the longest time before she finally let out a frustrated noise and leaned into him, though she didn't argue it. "You're not nearly as subtle as you think you are."

Scott looked like he was going to break his face smirking as he headed for the door. "Pretty sure he wasn't trying to be," he said as he shouldered open the door and gave K a little wave.

"I hate you both," K muttered as Logan turned her head his way for a kiss.

"Heard it before!" Scott said, sounding unapologetically cheerful on the way out.


	4. Young And In Love

While Kurt was perfectly happy to see that his family was happy — including his new daughter, who was always curled up with Kate so much so that Kurt had to cajole his wife into sharing — he was also aware that his oldest daughter was getting happier and more comfortable with her boyfriend.

On the one hand, that was wonderful, especially since Kurt knew how Krissy had been tormented with Sying's image. On the other hand….

Sying had just packed a bag for a trip he and Krissy were taking for his birthday when Kurt caught up to him outside his room. He knew that Kate had given her permission to use her private island, but only because, she'd told Kurt, "I'd rather know where they're going than let them sneak around behind our backs, considering how kidnapping-prone they are."

Which was true. But that didn't mean Kurt was going to let his oldest daughter slip off with her boyfriend for an overnight trip without saying something about it.

Sying could obviously see that Kurt was ready to tear into him, because he was steeling himself as he smiled at Kurt. "Oh. Hey, Kurt."

"Mmm," Kurt said softly, his tail keeping a meter that didn't make it immediately clear what he was thinking. "I'm sure you're aware that we are well overdue for a chat, considering everything that has happened recently."

Sying adjusted the way his bag was sitting. "Okay," he said carefully.

Kurt tipped his head for Sying to step closer, and the moment that he did, he put a hand on Sying's shoulder and teleported them to the top of Kate's publishing building. The lighting was exactly as dramatic as one would expect from Kurt when he was trying to make a point. Neon from across the alley sent harsh shadows across his features, accenting Kurt's yellow eyes in a perfectly menacing manner as he half-blended in to the shadows, though his smoke hung strangely in the air — more illuminated in the odd light. "I want you to know, first of all, that I am very proud of the progress you have made lately. I can see how hard you've been working, and it means _so_ very much that you are trying _so hard_."

Sying visibly relaxed and smiled. "Krissy helped me a lot after Chandilar. And with half our junior squad hurting, I'm just glad I can help."

"Yes. I know," Kurt said carefully. "And I also want to tell you how much I appreciate you going out of your way to help her with her struggles as well. I know how wickedly hurt she was by some of what that … boy did. So it's that much more impressive that you have done _so much_ to take things at her speed."

Again, Sying smiled and shrugged up his shoulders. "She's… special. I'm trying not to hurt her."

"I'm very happy to hear that as well, but … I'm aware of how anxious both of you can be if it feels like you are both racing. I want to be _sure_ that you know that it's not always smart to move at the pace the two of you do."

Sying blinked a few times. "It's not… you just said we're moving at her speed. It's — it's not a _race_ ," he assured him quickly.

"She's my little girl," Kurt said. "And keeping that in mind, I hope that you remember it's not always _her_ pace that should be kept in mind. There is an _order_ to things … that I am very sure you two will at least partially ignore. At your own risk."

"Ah." Sying shifted slightly. "Yes. Um. I'm not going to get teleported into the ocean, am I?"

Kurt smiled, letting his pointed teeth show more prominently. "No."

"Ah." Sying took a deep breath and let it out. "Just… so you know… probably not really a concern anyway because Krissy's still… I mean… I wouldn't hurt her, you know…"

"Then consider this the intro to 'what are your intentions with my precious firstborn?'"

"Okay, well, good ones, if that answers your question," Sying said, bouncing on one foot nervously in a way that instantly reminded Kurt of a nervous Jubilee at that age.

"Be more specific, please, Sying." He smiled wider. "The devil's in the details."

Sying paused in his bouncing before it resumed again. "I just meant that I want to do right by her, y'know? Date her, help her with this crap — you know I've been head over heels for her since I was, well, I mean, me and Chance both, I guess, just kinda _knew_ early on who we liked…"

"This discussion would be best if you left him out of it for now."

"Just didn't want you to think I was trying to be dramatic because he did the whole 'I've liked you forever' thing first?" Sying closed one eye. "Shutting up now."

Kurt considered him for long enough that Sying was starting to fidget waiting for a response. "How would you rate this upcoming excursion?"

"Um…. scale of one to ten? Of fun? Ten? I hope?" Sying offered.

"Follow the cinema — whole picture." He took a step closer. "No adult situations. No adult substances … and nothing that would get you out of a PG-13 rating."

Sying paused. "I… Yeah, I got it."

"Good. Don't forget to check in from time to time," Kurt said, smiling again, though it felt like a much warmer expression this time around. He dropped his hand on Sying's shoulder — a little harder than was necessary — and teleported them right back to the hall outside of Sying's room. "Tell Krissy I'd like to see her before you go. I'm sure you're headed there next."

Sying nodded tightly and put his bag on his shoulder before he wordlessly headed off.

"Alright, it should be all set up the same way we were planning for Valentine's," Krissy told Sying as she finished packing up her things and looked up to see her boyfriend standing in the doorway with his own bag slung over his shoulder.

"Well, not quite," Sying said with a shaky smile. "We'll be there a little longer."

"Well, yeah. Birthday weekend," Krissy said, teleporting over to him in a blink.

He leaned in to kiss her, smiling a little wider when she responded by wrapping her arms around his shoulders. "Your dad is having kittens, just so you know."

"My dad is distracted with my little sister," Krissy pointed out.

Sying couldn't help but smile and nod at that. "She's really cute, Krissy," he said, deciding not to wreck her good mood by letting on that her dad wasn't _nearly_ as distracted as she thought he was. Besides, they both needed this trip after all that had gone down recently.

"Yeah, Dad's been calling her his little angel so often she'll probably think that's her name instead of Chelsea," Krissy giggled.

"Kinda surprised they didn't go with something starting with a 'K'," Sying said.

"Yeah, but it fits her," Krissy said with a little shrug. "It just _does_."

"I'm just saying: when time travelers come to visit and find a redhead with a 'C' name, they're going to assume she's a Summers," Sying teased.

"Just for that, I'm going to be on the lookout for time travelers, and I'm going to tell them _you're_ the one who jinxed us all and made there be a reason we _needed_ time travelers to come visit," Krissy sniffed haughtily.

"No," Sying said with an easy smile. "They just came to see how amazing we are."

"Oh, yeah. That's definitely it," Krissy couldn't help but giggle as she leaned up to kiss Sying.

Sying smiled but then, knowing he'd get in trouble if he didn't bring it up, told her: "Your dad really is having kittens, though. You're supposed to talk to him before we leave, and it didn't sound like a request."

Krissy frowned, but when she saw how stressed Sying looked, she dropped her shoulders, sighed, and teleported to find her dad, one hand on her hip as, as soon as she arrived, she demanded, "Why are you terrorizing my boyfriend?"

Kurt looked mortally offended as he rested his hand over his heart. "I was _not_ terrorizing anyone."

"So the fact that he's all nervy before we're going on a trip to _relax_ is just a coincidence?"

"Krissy, _schatzi_ , I am not a mind reader." Kurt was smiling crookedly, and he looked far too amused to be able to pull off perfect innocence. "Though sometimes I wish I was."

Krissy rolled her eyes before she darted over to hug him and look up at him with wide eyes. "I promise he's never pushed me, Papa. You can back off letting the demon out."

"If anything, I've been holding back," Kurt told her with one eyebrow raised. "But I am glad to hear _from you_ that he's been a gentleman so far."

Krissy nodded. "We're fine, Papa. I promise."

"All the same, I want to hear from you while you're gone. Often enough that I know you are _safe_ , but not so often as to spoil your trip," Kurt said before he tapped her on the forehead. "Think. Please. Do not get carried away as it is so tempting to do."

She smiled up at him. "Love you too."

"Yes. And I love you. Enough to warn you that if you don't think, I may have to drop someone on your party to dampen the fun."

"Pickles is on _my_ side, just so you know," Krissy sniffed.

"Pickles is not stupid enough to cross me," Kurt argued. "Nor are any of the others."

"Okay," Krissy said, but her tone made it clear she didn't believe him.

"Be _careful_ , _Prinzessin_."

"I will," Krissy promised and kissed his cheek before she teleported away to find Sying and kiss him. "He's not going to kill you, I promise," she told Sying. "Let's go have fun, huh?"

He grinned and threw her bag over his shoulder before he swept her up and kissed her too. "Hope you don't mind running," he teased.

"Oh no," she teased. "Having to hold onto you?"

"Yeah, I know. It's such a burden," he teased, sneaking another quick kiss before he zipped off with her to go down to the island the Wagners owned, skidding to a stop in the sand with a huge smile and all but dumping her into the hammock, laughing to himself at her expression as he did so.

"Oh, you're trouble," she accused him.

"Uh-huh," he said. "Runs in my family."

Krissy let out a bark of a laugh before she teleported right to Sying and grabbed him by the arm, disappearing once more with him and timing it perfectly so that they'd get hit with a huge wave — and Sying would be soaked.

"You just can't play fair, can you?" Sying laughed once he'd resurfaced to see that Krissy had teleported in time to avoid most of the wave and was still on the beach, grinning and waving at him.

"Not even a little bit," she shot back.

He shook his head at her before he simply darted toward the beach at full speed, and she let out a delighted giggle as she teleported away, letting him chase her all over the island with little shouts of "it has to come out sometime!" heard through the trees.

* * *

With Kurt's almost-threats over their heads, Krissy and Sying ended up simply curling up together at the end of the night, sharing a bed in a relatively chaste way — though that hadn't been their intention when they left.

Still, it had been nice falling asleep in each other's arms. It was just the part where Krissy woke up with Sying behind her that was too familiar for her semiconscious mind in the middle of the night.

All at once, she forgot that Sying wasn't Christian, and she swung out, instinctively hitting the threat that her unconscious mind had assessed Sying to be and pushing him away from her with her feet and tail.

That, obviously, had not been how Sying had expected to wake up, and he wound up scrambling back from Krissy not because he was hurt but because he first had the instinct to get away from the attack and he didn't want to freak her out any worse than she already was.

Krissy woke up enough to realize what was happening just as Suing was scooting away from her, and she breathed out a dozen apologies before Sying managed to calm _himself_ down enough to assure her he didn't blame her and to pull her into a hug with her head on his chest.

"Sorry," Krissy said again. "My brain isn't used to this arrangement not being bad."

"It's okay," he promised, even though he was a step away from panicking too.

"I don't want to let him win and let him poison this for us," she clarified.

"Totally agreed," he promised quickly. Then, in the spirit of full disclosure: "I'm not all there myself."

"Really?"

He nodded and filled in a breath. "Waking up to a hit… reminds me of Chandilar."

Krissy let out a noise that clearly communicated how miserable she was. "Sying, I'm _so_ sorry!"

"It's okay," he promised. "I'm not mad. I was just trying to illustrate that you aren't the only one with issues to work through."

"Yeah but I hit you…"

"You didn't mean to," Suing pointed out. He sighed. "Let's try this again tomorrow night, huh? I can sleep on the couch. We can go slow while we both figure ourselves out. No pressure, no rush, right?"

Krissy nodded. "Okay," she breathed out. "I really am sorry."

He waved her off. "I told you already: we'll get through this together. You and me, always. Okay!"

"Okay."

Sying gave her a smile that he hoped illustrated how much he still wanted to make this work before he left the room — and ended up sleeping on the floor for the first time in a while since he had gotten back from Chandilar.

* * *

Sying and Krissy got back just in time for the fall formal, of course — since it was his birthday as well. But for the rest of the group, it wasn't all sand and beaches but dresses and excitement. Elin had even made sure that Krissy had a beautiful silver dress waiting for her when she got home — while Elin's was gold.

"It was the closest to matched that I could find," Elin explained when she showed her the silver dress. "The asymmetrical cuts for the hem are opposite, but …" She shrugged. "I thought you might like it."

Krissy broke into a huge grin. "You are the _best_ ," she gushed to her friend, flushing with pleasure.

"I would have gotten both in silver, but it washed me out too much," she admitted. "Kinda figured you were a little too busy on the beach to think about a dress too."

Krissy grabbed Elin and spun her around in a hug. "I love it," she assured Elin. "And I get it. Gold would look _horrible_ on me. It's hard to match gorgeous Scandinavian and purple fuzz."

"So … it'll have to do. I figured you were ma-aybe getting tired of everyone handing you purple or black, too."

Krissy giggled and nodded. "Yeah, my closet is very … dark," she said. "But Sying gave me a few light blue things that look amazing."

"I was gonna say … light blue would be good, and I know better than to suggest anything as drastic as _pink_." She tipped her head toward her dresser. "I got you some silver eyeliner too, if you want to really accent things."

Krissy beamed and nodded. "And I didn't get you anything!"

"I'm fine," Elin laughed. "I like to give stuff out anyhow."

"Especially when you're on cloud nine," Krissy had to tease. "Don't think I don't know gold matches your hair pin."

"Well, mom always said gold went well with the dark hair," Elin said. "I'm not going to argue."

"Uh-huh," Krissy said with a smirk.

"If you think I'm full of it — take a look; I'm borrowing Mom's gold eye makeup." She gave Krissy a scrunched-nose look and then stuck her tongue out at her.

Krissy giggled. "No, I believe you that it's _one_ of the reasons you're wearing gold."

"I did gunmetal last year," Elin pointed out.

"And you looked amazing," Krissy agreed before she shooed her friend. "Okay, let me get dressed and ready. You go … do your golden makeup and meet up with your golden boy," she couldn't help but tease.

"You're so ridiculous," Elin said as she pushed the silver gown into Krissy's hands.

"And yet you love me anyway," Krissy sang out, grinning before she kissed Elin's cheek for good measure.

Once Elin was gone, Krissy rushed to get ready and was sure to give her new little sister a kiss on top of her head before she left — her mom was skipping the beginning of the party to give her one more feeding before they headed down to debut Chelsea the teeny tiny pumpkin.

"You look amazing," Kate said, grinning up at her oldest daughter with a little twinkle in her eye.

"Ellie got it for me," Krissy said, matching her mother's grin with one of her own. "Do you like it?"

"Well, baby, you know I do, but your father is going to have fits seeing you look that beautiful," Kate couldn't help but tease. "He's all wrapped up in baby mode — can't handle you all grown up like this."

"Yes, of course, _I'm_ the one wrapped up," Kurt couldn't help but tease as he came out dressed as Jack Skellington, with several of the bamfs dressed as various Halloweentown characters with stitched up mouths. Kate wasn't quite done with her Sally costume yet, but she'd been understandably distracted.

"You look amazing," Kate said with a smile his way as she let him take Chelsea so she could change.

"Naturally," Kurt laughed as he kissed Chelsea's head and then looked up at Krissy with that same sort of soft expression. "And you, _Prinzessin_ , are living up to your name."

Krissy couldn't help but blush and shake her head at him. Ever since Chelsea came along, her parents were just… like this. Not that she was complaining. She was totally enjoying the seriously good moods, the teasing, the fact that she had a _little sister_ … all of it. But it also meant that her dad was in that mood where he was treating her like his little princess, so… it was going to be a fun night.

When Kate came back, she scooped Chelsea right up, and with that, Kurt couldn't help but laugh. "Come on, Krissy," he said. "Let's make an entrance." And with that, he and the bamfs — and Krissy — disappeared down to the ballroom… Though the entrance was even more spectacular than Krissy had expected, because her father had a little bit of James' blackout powder for the proper Jack Skellington entrance.

With the guests now appropriately oohing and ahhing over Kurt's dramatics, Krissy had to laugh before she disappeared to go find her friends — specifically to snag Sying in a kiss that she didn't care his mom and sisters were right there to see. Not that she had _ever_ heard them complaining. She was pretty sure Melody was still angling for a bridesmaid spot.

Of course, her suspicions were confirmed when a shrill wolf whistle split the air and she turned to see Jubilee as the culprit, shamelessly laughing as she cheered them on.

" _Mom_ ," Sying said, blushing a brilliant red from embarrassment, and Jubilee simply cackled with delight.

"Better than 'hands off my son'," Krissy teased Sying and pulled him into another kiss as he shook his head at her.

Once Krissy felt like Sying was the proper shade of red, she gave him another kiss on the cheek and threaded her arm through his as they went to find the rest of their friends. Of course, Chance and Elin looked amazing, but Charlie and Gerry were a totally hilarious pair together, going as friends since neither of them had a date and totally _rocking_ the Sherlock and Watson look — with Gerry as Watson, of course.

"Your dad has the best entrances," Gerry told Krissy when they caught up to the group.

"Oh, don't encourage him," Krissy laughed. "He's been on cloud nine ever since K brought home my new little sister."

"And you've been too," Charlie pointed out. "Your whole family is glowing, Krissy; you really are."

"Papa wanted to call her 'Angel', but Mama said they had to be reasonable," Krissy admitted with a laugh. "He still calls her _Engelchen_ anyway, though."

"Of course he does," Charlie laughed. "He called everyone that at one point or another."

"He has, but I think this one's gonna stick," Krissy said.

"That's alright, though," Charlie said, still grinning. "Everyone's in great moods."

"Hard to be anything but when an angel falls from the sky," Sying said with a smile.

"That … isn't the story I heard," she laughed.

Sying waved a hand at her. "Get your ears fixed, Summers."

"Excuse you," she said, putting one hand on her hip. "I'm taking about the story from your grandmother."

"Grammy K tells two-sentence stories. Mine's better," Sying pointed out.

"Most of the time she does, but … if you stick around when my dad is razzing her, more comes out. If nothing else to clear the air."

"And make him stop smiling," Chance couldn't help but add with a little smile. "Which so far? Not happening. Charlie loves it, don't you, Charlie?"

Charlie gave Chance a look, but Gerry just grinned and squeezed Charlie in a side hug. "Lottie just likes it when people are happy," he pointed out, though behind her back, he was grinning _widely_ and there was no mistaking the fact that it was a rehearsed line.

"She _would_ like being around Mom and Dad right now," Elin said, shaking her head. "Dad's pretty hard to misinterpret."

"Your mom's pretty straightforward too," Charlie replied with a small smirk. "And has been ever since Chelsea got here."

"Which is why Dad's so … like. That," Elin said, smiling her way.

"I love it," Charlie said.

Elin shook her head and glanced over to where her brother was tucked away. "Both boys in my family are like that … all… floating," she said. "Which I didn't really expect from James."

"Where is he anyway?" Krissy asked, looking around the dance floor to try and spot their friend and his adorable blonde girlfriend.

"If he's good? Not getting caught by my dad," Chance said with a little smirk.

"He's not worried about getting caught," Elin said, bumping him with her hip. "It's not like he doesn't have an entire lab to himself."

"And a girlfriend who can see it coming if they're about to get busted," Gerry pointed out.

"He's been talking her out of looking too hard," Elin told him. "Trying to get her to relax and live a little."

"Good for him," Charlie said with a genuine smile.

"Speaking of living a little," Chance said with a crooked smile as the song changed to a slower one and he offered Elin his hand. "Whatdya say, El?"

"If you insist," she said, doing her best to look entirely put out as he pulled her out with him.

He just laughed at her and pulled her into a spin. "I know it's a hardship."

"Not too much of one," she promised before she popped up on her toes to steal a kiss.

He grinned at her as they continued their slow dance around the floor — which was what they were doing when Scott sat down next to Annie and followed her gaze, shaking his head when he saw what she was focused on. "He's …"

"Oh hush," Annie said, reaching over to swat his arm. "It's beautiful."

Scott shook his head as he watched Elin and Chance out on the dance floor, fully cognizant of the looks that both of them were wearing — _still_ — as they danced with each other, but Annie had apparently had enough, because she swatted him again and then stood in front of him to pull him to his feet.

"Come on," she said. "You need to dance with me."

Scott couldn't help but smile at that as he let her take him out to the dance floor. "Can't argue with that," he said.

"And you'd be in trouble if you tried," she agreed easily, and he couldn't help but laugh as he lead her out.

Across the way, Logan and K were doing the very worst job they possibly could on chaperoning the dance, but it was clear that he was in a great mood, even as she smacked him a solid one on the chest. "Try … _just try_ for more subtle."

"I haven't said a word," Logan defended. "Not. One. Word." He put one hand over his heart and smiled crookedly. "And I won't."

But that was wrecked, of course, when Kate made her way over with Chelsea and dropped into the seat across from the two of them. "Oh, my God, your timing sucks so bad," K said, shaking her head at Kate.

"It does not," Kate said with a smile. "Look, she's awake and everything so you can get the full pumpkin experience."

K was biting her lip as she turned Logan's way - where she knew he was smirking at her. "It really sucks."

Kate smiled sedately at both of them as she continued to snuggle her little girl — who she very, _very_ rarely let out of her grasp. "I heard I missed Kurt's entrance," she said conversationally.

"It was very dramatic, I'm sure," K said, though Logan still hadn't stopped smirking at the side of K's head — and she was leaning into him all the same.

"You missed it too?" Kate asked with one eyebrow raised.

"I was into someone's stash," K said.

"Of course you were," Kate said with a little smirk. She kissed Chelsea's head and then K's cheek. "By the way, your daughter has _excellent_ taste in dresses. If Kurt wasn't so high on cloud nine, he'd be having a heart attack over both of them."

"She's just like that," K said. "Smart girl… though I think that Scott was having a hard time earlier with the gold one."

Kate just grinned at that. "Scott knows they're rushing down the path to asking Kurt to officiate - which, by the way, Kurt is _still_ scandalized about," she said, grinning Logan's way.

"Oh, shut up," Logan said, finally breaking his focus for just a minute. "If he was that scandalized, he'd have noticed the pair of 'em."

"He's distracted by our redhead," Kate said happily.

"Good," Logan said, nodding. "He needed a little distraction."

"We all needed the pick-me-up," Kate said. "Our little angel." She emphasized the point by snuggling Chelsea and rubbing noses with the little girl.

"So go take her and snuggle her away from all these people," K said. "You know they're going to want to hug her and hold her … and I know you're not prepared to do that yet."

"Not even close," Kate agreed. "But I wanted to see my cute kids too." She tipped her head toward where Kaleb was _obviously_ flirting with Celeste. "Exhibit A."

"Yeah, we got no room to talk there," Logan said as he pulled K a little closer. Across the way, Sadie was bouncing from one cute boy to the next seamlessly, James was still hidden away with Vanessa, and Elin and Chance were about as not-subtle as anyone could be. Even Malin was stealing kisses.

"Yeah, you did that to yourselves," Kate teased them lightly.

"What makes you say that?" he asked, still smirking wickedly.

Kate looked up at the expression on his face and then simply smirked right back at him. "Oh, no reason," she said airily as she got up with Chelsea. "Come on, sweetie, let's find your papa before he gets withdrawals," she said in almost a coo as she slipped off to go find Kurt.

"Oh, I hate you too," K said with a little growl.

Kate looked up over Chelsea's head and then just laughed. "Missed him and hit me huh?" she teased. "Thanks, sis."

"It's just getting blown entirely out of proportion," K insisted.

"Hey, I'm not stepping into that argument," Kate said. "I'm just gonna take my baby and go. Toodles!" With that, she all but skipped off to where Kurt was to steal a kiss and let him hold Chelsea for a little bit.

And, of course, Sying didn't miss the teasing and ended up shaking his head. "Your mom doesn't realize just how close I am to another aunt," he told Krissy in a low tone as they danced.

"What makes you think it'll be an aunt?" Krissy asked.

"Do they come any other way?" Sying teased. "Come on - we all know about my grandpa and his army of girls. Uncle James is the exception to the rule."

"Oh really?" Krissy couldn't help but laugh.

"Yeah, didn't you read the pamphlet?" Sying laughed.

"Clearly, I did not," she said, shaking her head before she stole another kiss. "Is it weird? Having uncles and aunts younger than you?"

Sying shrugged. "Not really. I mean, Grampa Wolvie and Grammy K aren't going to _stop_ , so… I'm used to it."

Krissy just smiled as she spun around with Sying. "Well, I love your family anyway."

"Good, because your best friend is part of it," he teased.

"And you!"

"Well yeah, but I thought we'd already established that part," he teased.

"Are you two going to start kissing yet or what?" Elin said as they spun closer to them.

"Are you?" Sying shot back.

"Oh, no way I'm passing that up," Chance said with a smirk as he dipped Elin into a kiss.

Sying and Krissy both had to laugh, though Krissy was the one to grab Sying by the shirt and pull him into a kiss too, deciding it was time to teleport off with him too.

"Such a troublemaker," Elin said with a grin when the kiss finally broke.

"Who, me?" Chance said without letting her up from the dip.

"You and your accomplice."

"What accomplice?" Chance asked. "I don't need help to know I want to kiss you."

"They were so giving you excuses, though," she replied. "And you know it."

"Well, you started it," he pointed out and kissed her again.

Of course, she simply wrapped her arms around his neck a little better and got comfortable until the kiss broke and he finally let her back up to her feet with a spark of trouble in his gaze.

"You really do look like a queen tonight," he said softly.

"You're sounding sweeter and sweeter," she replied just as quietly as she straightened up his lapels.

"Just falling more and more in love," he replied easily.

She shook her head for just an instant and simply kissed him again.

The overt display finally got to be too much, apparently, as Kurt teleported next to the two of them and tapped Elin on the shoulder. "May I have this dance, _schatzi_?"

She couldn't help but grin at him before she nodded and took his hand. "I don't think you need to ask," Elin said, though she was trying not to smile too hard.

Kurt shot Chance a little look before he teleported off with Elin into the middle of the dance floor. "My usual partner is a bit busy," he said with a smile.

She nodded her head and glanced over to where Kate was. "She's always busy," Elin pointed out.

"Especially since we added our little angel to the family," Kurt said with a smile.

Elin smiled wider and nodded. "She's really sweet," she agreed, then took a second to brush the loose strand of hair out of her face. "But honestly, Uncle Kurt, I didn't need an intervention."

Kurt let out a sort of scoffing noise. "Can't a man dance with his goddaughter?"

"As long as it's not something _tactical,_ then you can dance with me as much as you like," Elin teased.

Kurt let out a little sigh and slumped his shoulders. "You are far too young and precious to me to be — to be _gallivanting_ ," he grumbled.

She shook her head and hugged him, putting her head on his shoulder for the dance. "But I learned so well."

"Need I remind you he's - he's an adult and you're _seventeen_ ," Kurt spluttered.

"We're not that far apart in age," Elin said, looking up at him. "And he treats me well."

Kurt raised an eyebrow at her. "Elin…"

"What am I doing that's so terribly wrong?" she asked, wide-eyed.

Kurt shook his head at her. "You … you are getting carried away, and I don't _approve_."

Elin gave him a soft smile. "Am I _not_ supposed to get carried away? Because I tried the whole keeping cool and calm, and I don't think that was very good for me."

"You're… not supposed to be old enough to do either," Kurt grumbled.

She bit her lip and watched him for just a moment. "Do you know how old my parents were when they fell for someone for the first time? I mean, I know it was like … a totally different century, but still."

Kurt let out a little huff. "That's different."

"How old were you when you fell for someone for the first time?" she asked, smiling up at him lightly.

"That… isn't important," Kurt said. "And it's one thing to fall for someone and another thing entirely to — to _carry on_ like this!" he pointed out.

"So … you didn't carry on with anyone until …" She held up one hand. "I don't want to overstep, so you need to help me find the lines."

"I just don't want you to get swept up," Kurt said, shaking his head at her.

"But why not?"

"Because _you_ should do the sweeping if you — you shouldn't get run over," Kurt spluttered.

She shook her head lightly. "I'm not getting run over. I promise. Have a little faith."

Kurt let out a sigh and kissed her forehead. "You are too smart for your own good," he had to tease.

She couldn't help but grin back at him. "I promise, if I'm wrong — and this ends faster than I thought — I'll say you were right, and that you _tried_ to warn me. All of it."

"And I will 'port him somewhere freezing," Kurt said with a little smirk.

She nodded at that. "But I really am having a lot of fun, and I promise … one step out of line and I'll break something." She raised an eyebrow. "You know I will."

"Yes, I know you will," Kurt said. "But I also know that it's possible not to see it. I'm just being protective, that's all. It wasn't too long ago that you were in a cabin in the woods because of him."

She nodded her head at that and let out a little sigh. "Yeah, that's true," she had to agree. "But there was a lot more going on than just whatever this is."

"Mmm," Kurt said, completely unconvinced.

She met his gaze and shook her head lightly. "I wanted to leave before then," she told him. "And when my best friend was so far gone that I couldn't be near her, and everyone was overly busy, and I had just killed someone out of _instinct_ … he was my last friend left, and I thought I lost him too. So." She shrugged up both shoulders. "It _wasn't_ just. Him."

Kurt stopped and stared at her for a moment before he simply wrapped her up in a hug right there on the dance floor and pressed a kiss to her forehead.

"It's Krissy's fault I even came back," she told him honestly.

"Then I'm glad she brought you with her," he said softly. "You're my little girl too."

She gave him a tight squeeze. "Love you too."

Kurt gave her one last hug before he teleported off - though she did notice that he didn't take her back to Chance, and he made his way over to her on his own.

"So … should I be watching for a shotgun anytime soon?" he teased.

"You're fine," Elin said. "He just needed a good dance. And a hug."

"Saw the hug," Chance said with a nod as he pulled her off to the side so they could sit down together. "You think he'd be full up of snuggles with Chelsea, though."

"He might be if Kate ever shared," Elin said reasonably.

Chance had to laugh at that. "True," he said, then leaned over to kiss her cheek and dramatically looked around for Kurt. "Oh good, no bamfs," he teased.

She gave him a dry, raised eyebrow look. "Don't pick on him; he hasn't earned it."

"Got it, hands off the godfather jokes," he said with a smirk. He kissed her cheek again and rested his head on her shoulder. "You want to stay and dance or…?"

She shrugged up her opposite shoulder. "I don't know …"

"Well, we can find a middle ground. Give me a minute to get your coat and we can dance in the snow away from people," he offered.

"I think if it's snowing, I'd prefer a fire," she replied, smiling lightly.

"Then we'll build one," he decided. "Or… I'll build one and you can get some tea and meet me there so you don't get soot on your nice dress," he said with a crooked smile.

"If that's the case, I should probably change out of the nice dress, if soot's a consideration," she said, smiling a little wider.

He couldn't help but grin at her. "I wouldn't complain," he said. "You look great in anything anyway."

She turned to wrap him up in a quick, tight hug. "You're kinda cute when you're being all … biased."

He grinned even wider and kissed her. "Only kinda?"

"Maybe … cute-er."

He grinned and stole one more longer kiss before he stepped back. "Gonna start that fire now," he said. "Before anyone else gets the same idea."

"Then maybe I'll just go with you," she replied. "It's fun to watch the big, strong, he-man at work."

Chance just laughed at that and took her by the hand. "Well, come on then," he said as they wove through the people. "I'll build the fire and you look gorgeous and make fun of my big strong he-manliness."

"I'm not going to make fun," she promised. "I'll just get the fuzzy blanket."

He kissed her with an impish smile. "You know - I'm pretty lucky," he said. "Best Halloween ever."

"I'm surprised you didn't grab more sweets," she said as they made their way down the hall. "It must be a record for you."

He couldn't help but smirk. "Must have been distracted."

She let her eyes widen in false shock. "Do … do you need to go see Dr. Blue?"

"Nope," he said, scooping her up to kiss her. "Pretty sure everything's working just fine."

"I don't know about that," she said, shaking her head slightly. "That sweet tooth … if it goes un-cared for …"

He grinned. "So we'll grab some hot chocolate, since you're so concerned."

"I _am_ ," she agreed. "If you lose your source of sugar, you might just turn into a troll."

He couldn't let that one pass, though. "What are you talking about?" he said. "I've got everything sweet I need _right here_." To illustrate his point, he swept her up into a long and lasting kiss, grinning the whole time.

When they got to the living room, and he had the fire burning decently, she slipped her shoes off and drew her feet up underneath her so she could curl right into his side and snuggle in. "You're sure you can live without chocolate of some sort? Because I thought I saw that as some kind of addendum your mother had in the kitchen once: must feed a certain percentage of sugar … or something."

Chance kissed the side of her head. "She's got an entire ballroom full of kids to hype up on sugar," he said. "Besides, I'm right where I want to be."

"Me too," she said a little quieter.

He grinned as he rearranged the blanket around the two of them. "Love you, Elin."

"Love you too," she replied, picking up her head to give him a kiss.


	5. K's Decision

Most of the mansion was still in high spirits, especially since Kurt's birthday party had happened shortly after the Halloween dance and had mostly consisted of the ongoing joke that Kate had finally given up her hold on Chelsea for a whole day — which meant that Kurt had done things one-handed the whole time.

Of course, that didn't mean the world outside the mansion wasn't still turning. Scott had managed to snatch a printout from the computer that K had been using to keep track of her missions. He still didn't think it had been long enough since the mission that brought Chelsea into their homes for K to resume her operations, so he was doing what he could to keep the intel off of K's desk as much as possible.

The more he read of it, though, the more he found himself glaring down at the paper. The weapons programs were much more underground than they had been since Canada's Weapon X program had taken such a public beating. But pushing the programs underground simply meant that they were getting more extreme, even knowing that they were acting without impunity.

This latest printout was downright upsetting. There was a program in Ukraine that had gone right to kidnapping and dragging kids out of their homes in areas that were too rural and poor for people to look too closely. No one was going to speak out against the government, either.

Scott was just considering who he'd send in for this one… Noh had said he wanted to get out more… when K came to his office with a look that clearly said she knew what he was up to.

"What gives?" she said in the doorway, crossing her arms and leaning in the frame.

"You still need to lay low," Scott said without looking up.

"What are you talking about? It's been weeks," she said, frowning at him.

"Three," Scott said.

"Yeah. Still weeks."

"We agreed that you needed to stay down," Scott said.

"And I have for all this time," she replied. "I've been watching these guys for _months_."

"I'm going to send Noh in," he said.

"Oh, come on. This is my pet project, and you can't send in Ambassador Sparkly Pants for this," she said with a little laugh.

Scott couldn't help but smirk. "He's been asking to get more involved with the team, seeing as the Kree don't want anything to do with governments that enslave their people — and right now, that's all of them."

"Yeah," she said, gesturing to the papers. "But this isn't one to _start_ him on."

"What, breaking up a government-sanctioned kidnapping ring is too rough?" Scott said with a raised eyebrow.

She narrowed her eyes and held her breath, clearly not wanting to elaborate more already. "That … is not what I said."

Scott raised both eyebrows and turned to face her fully. "K, what do you know that I don't?"

She couldn't help but smirk his way. "Do you want an itemized list?"

"On this matter," he said.

She shook her head. "What is in your hands is what is more or less public knowledge. Locally."

"Then what do you know that I don't?" he said again.

"Nothing too exciting," she said. "Just the security protocols, hidden entrances, and what experiments they're running."

"Give them to Noh."

She shook her head lightly. "I don't think so. It's not all kids in there. And very few of the mutants they have are powerful at all."

Scott nodded slowly. "Then we'll go in — but K, you were on national news. You need to _stay low_."

She shook her head. "I was _not_ on national news," she argued.

"You're right. It was international."

" _I_ was never on either," she said, crossing her arms again. "Someone was, but it wasn't me. In fact, anything that was shown didn't even have _anyone_ in it."

Scott turned to her and gave her a dry look. "They know a healer went in," he said.

"And they think it was a big guy."

"You have to let someone else take this one. If you think Noh needs backup, tell me who you want, but you need to stay down."

She stared at him, lips parted for a moment. "No."

"K, I'm sending someone in on this, and you need to tell them what the intel entails."

"If you think _I_ need back up, fine, I'll go with Noh, but I'm going."

Scott glared at K for a moment. "No."

She didn't budge any more than he did. "You don't have all the intel, and I'm not handing it off."

"You're keeping me in the dark on purpose."

She leaned forward slightly. "You knew that I was. For your own deniability."

"This is different. We agreed that you needed to lay low, and I'm covering for you," he said.

"Scott, I _did_ lay low; that's over with now."

"I'm telling you it's not," Scott said.

"You're letting your emotions carry you away," she said, already turning from his office. "You keep those. I'll get my own copy. Thanks."

Scott swore under his breath as he got up to catch up to her. "Damnit, K," he said. "This isn't just because I want to protect you. You _know_ what will happen if they figure out who it is that's coming after them. Even if they think it's Tyler."

"Tyler hasn't done a mission in years, and even the ones he ran were never special ops level," she replied perfectly calmly.

"Tell that to the governments who believe there's an overly tall _healer_ in their intel and running dark-ops missions," Scott said.

"His time in the hospital when the missions are happening should be alibi enough for anyone. He actually _is_ on tape at work while I'm out."

"You're assuming people are going to be rational about this. Some of the people you've hit are terrorist groups. They've definitely got a history of rationality."

"We're going around in circles and I have eight kids, three teenagers, and seven women to get out of a sublevel complex."

Scott glared at her for a long time. "I want the full intel on these missions from now on," he said.

"I'll copy it to you."

"All of it, K," Scott said. "There can't be this gap. If you're down, I need to be able to make sure these things are getting taken care of."

She stopped and gave him a little smirk. "I'm not going to be down."

"Uh-huh." For the first time, Scott couldn't help but smirk back.

She paused and watched him carefully for a long moment. "Oh, no. See, he's not getting anything like that until this whole weapons garbage is over. There are too many people after my family to bring any more into the world just because you two get squishy baby face."

"You know, Annie had to tell me a few times that we can't let these people stop us living," Scott said.

"I have a little more time to keep playing around with that chapter of things, though," K said with a shrug. "I've got time. I just don't want to gift wrap my kids for them."

"Take Noh with you," Scott said.

"Fine," she said, shrugging one shoulder up.

"He's not backup; I need to know there's not just _one_ person, or even just one family, I'm drawing from on this."

She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "Fine. Tell him to be ready in five."

"Fine."

K gave him one last look before she turned to head down the hall to change and grab a fresh printout, already having decided that she'd leave if things weren't lined up in five minutes.

* * *

The pair of them weren't gone for more than a few hours before Logan came through with a frown. It didn't take Scott long at all to figure out that K had managed to slip out without giving him a heads up — and if he hadn't intercepted the data, she'd have gone past him too.

"You see K anywhere?" Logan asked, still frowning to himself.

"Yeah," Scott said, not seeing the point in lying, since he was trying to help rein her in too. "She and Noh headed out four hours ago."

Logan narrowed his eyes and glared Scott's way. "For _what_?"

"Kidnapping ring in Ukraine, sanctioned by the government," Scott said, then held up his hands. "I sent Noh with her; I want him to start running these too so she's got a relief pitcher."

It was crystal clear to Scott that Logan had gone straight to furious already. "Goin' downstairs," he said through gritted teeth. "I'll catch 'em when they get back." he didn't look back as he headed down, clearly intent on trashing something while he waited, though Scott knew he'd just be that much madder when they did finally show up again.

Scott scrubbed both hands over his face. These two were going to give him headaches. And had been.

Hours later, when the pair finally returned, it was clear as they got out of the jet that Noh was completely outraged at what he'd seen, and he was even being incredibly insistent that K simply _not_ go out on these runs anymore without backup, practically hissing for as angry as he was.

Logan, of course, got there at nearly the same time Scott did, and for what it was worth, K looked as if the two of them had been through the ringer when she came to a stop with both hands up in front of her. "There were more kids than we thought. But it went a _lot_ smoother than last time — and let me remind you that last time was fine until the baby busted me out, okay?"

"I swear, K, if you say 'it was fine _until_ ' for this one too, I will be so unimpressed," Scott said with his arms crossed.

"Well, it _was_ fine this time," she said, clearly trying to downplay the damage — though at least it was entirely contained to the bulletproof panels on the uniform. "No blood." But that simply had Logan growling and not in the mood at all to hear it.

"They were trying to create supersoldiers," Noh said. "Badly."

"That's what they always do," K said, as if it was clear as day that was always the case — and in part, it was.

Noh looked her way angrily. "They are trying to replicate your mutation. _Badly_. What passes for science there would have been _laughable_ if it wasn't so inhumane."

She closed her eyes and tipped her head slightly, waiting for the backlash that was sure to come.

Scott gestured with one hand. "You still want to tell me you shouldn't lay low?" he asked. "You aren't the only one who can do this kind of thing, and you are _irreplaceable_ here, do you understand that?" he added angrily. "I don't have a problem with running these missions with any one of the three of you, but you can't take them all on yourself — and for things like this, you _know_ it would be better not to send you or Logan in. You _know_ they're looking for healers, and you _know_ if they figure out who's running these missions, they _will_ start baiting you in."

"They don't even need to bait her," Logan added, looking furious still. "They already know she'd be comin' — just gotta put up a good enough _trap._ " He shook his head, glaring. "Like that wasn't plain enough when you went last time? White phosphorus _and_ heavy gunfire? That wasn't just desperate like you want to frame it. _You know damn well_ that's what Canada did — with the guns, anyhow — to take me down."

"You knew that going in, and you were going to leave without telling anyone," Scott added. "You said yourself this was more than you expected going in. You can't just hope your luck holds out on this crap."

"Okay. I'm stepping back," K said quickly. trying to stop the three of them before they really got going — and it was clear that they could, especially when Logan let out a bark of a laugh.

"I want to know _all_ of the intel that comes in," Scott said. "And all three of you will know about each mission. You have to be able to back each other up — and you _have_ to be able to step back when someone else isn't _the target for the trap_."

She shook her head as the other two nodded. "I said I'm out. You can relax. Really."

"For how long?" Scott shot back. "You agreed to step back before, and that didn't last long."

"That's … not really your business, Scott," she said, frowning a little as Logan looked ready to tear into her properly — just waiting for the wrong thing to be said, really. "I'm out."

"Bull," Logan said, still glaring. "I don't buy it."

"Can we do this somewhere else?" K said, looking his way and trying to ignore Scott, who clearly was in Logan's camp.

"I think we'd all sleep better knowing you won't be doing this recklessly without us," Noh said. "I agree with you: they should be razed. But not by you _alone_."

"I won't," she said, gesturing again with both hands.

"It's hard to believe you when you try to leave without telling anyone to _do it anyway_ ," Scott said.

She scrubbed one hand over her face and let out a breath. "Well, you can believe it. I want another baby."

All three of them stopped, but Logan absolutely froze. "That's not funny," he said.

"Not joking. But that's why I wanted to talk to you _alone,_ " K pointed out, and though it was clear Logan wasn't buying it, he wasn't anywhere near as ticked off, either, as K turned toward Scott. "Is that good enough for you?"

Scott looked stunned. "That… isn't… my call. I don't…"

"You wanted an assurance that I'm not going to slip off," K said, with a little heat in her tone now. "So I told you what I could for an assurance. We good or do you want _details?_ "

"No," Scott said. "We're good."

She gave all three of them a glare before she shouldered by Scott and Logan both, sure to shoulder check them on her way through. "Discuss whatever the hell you need to; I'll reroute the intel to you."

The three men were completely silent for a good long time before Noh finally, slowly, turned toward Logan. "That… has that been building? Is she serious?"

"I … don't know," Logan admitted. "She's been fightin' me on it … but her lies are harder to read than other people's."

"Well." Noh was the first to recover a little smile. "Get to it, Logan. I'm sure my son would love a small ring bearer; we all know that's coming for them anyway."

Logan turned his way, blinking for a moment, before he let out a little scoff and turned to walk out. "I'll figure out what kind of game she's playing. Don't … trust that it's over yet."

"All the same, I was serious," Noh said.

Again, Logan simply stared at him for a moment before he shook his head and turned to catch up with his wife and find out how serious she really was.


	6. Asking Permission

Logan and K had disappeared for a little while, which meant that Elin and James were taking care of the younger kids for the time being. But that had presented the perfect opportunity for Chance — and he got his sister involved in his plans, too, as Charlie swept over one afternoon and announced that she was going to take Chloe out and she was going to take Malin and Sadie as well.

"Why?" Elin asked, scrunching her nose.

Charlie grinned crookedly at Elin, looking a lot like her brother. "Christmas shopping," she said brightly.

Elin shook her head and let out a breath. "Right. Well …" She paused and considered her for a moment. "How … long are you going to be gone?"

"That depends on how effectively they wear my brother down on buying them ice cream," Charlie teased.

"Well … that's going to happen — and you know it. I'm just trying to see if I can slip off with Krissy, really."

"Oh sure," Charlie said.

"And if we're running later than you, you'll let me know, right?" Elin was watching her with a cautious sort of look.

"Yeah, I'll text you when we head home; I promise," Charlie said.

She bit her lip, thought about it for a moment, and nodded hesitantly. "Okay … but watch them. Please. They're more trouble out in public."

"Don't worry. Chloe and I can keep up," Charlie said, skipping off to go find the girls and let them know they were going on a shopping trip.

Of course, the girls were delighted, and everyone piled into Charlie's car to head into town, the music playing loudly and the jokes flowing freely the whole way out.

When they got to the little row of shops, Chloe started to giggle when she spotted Chance's car, clearly catching on to what was going on. "Oh, really?" she said in a high-pitched sort of laugh that had Charlie shooting her a look.

Not that Chance was being subtle about it, either. As soon as Charlie was parked, he waited just long enough for Chloe to get unbuckled before he lifted her up out of the car and spun her around in a hug — and of course, Sadie and Malin got in on the good mood mobbing.

"For as happy as you guys are, what did you need us for?" Sadie asked with a crooked grin. "Outside of making this group look good, that is."

Chance grinned. "Well, you're the ones who know your sister best," he told her, then tipped his head toward the ring shop down the street a few doors down. "And I didn't want to do this without your input."

Sadie raised both eyebrows at that and shook her head slowly. "I don't know about this …"

"Why not?" Chance asked as he picked Malin up to ride on his shoulders.

"Well … shouldn't you figure this out on your own?" Sadie asked, though she was walking toward him slowly.

Chance nodded. "Okay then. I'll just use you guys as ring models," he said. "You know you wanna try 'em on."

"You are baiting us," Sadie said, hands on her hips.

He leaned down, with Malin giggling and holding onto his hat. "Is it working?"

She leaned forward and kissed his cheek. "Must be."

He grinned at that and led the way, and the lady behind the counter couldn't help but smile at the entourage — Chance surrounded by all the girls. "How can I help you?" she asked, still unable to hide the smile.

"We're looking for an engagement ring," Chance announced happily. "Got anything like that here?"

"We just might," the woman said, unable to hide her smile as Chance set Malin down from his shoulders.

"What do you think, girls?" Chance asked the group at large, which just got a giggle out of Chloe, who had already rushed to the nearest case to look over the selection, bouncing in place with excitement.

"I think you're in Dad's jewelry shop," Malin giggled.

Chance's eyebrows shot up, and Charlie just started to laugh. "That somehow doesn't surprise me," she said.

"Good taste," Chance said with a shrug as he looked at a few different rings behind the glass that weren't nearly as bright and complicated as the ones Chloe was looking at.

Charlie looked over his shoulder and had to smile. "Oooh, yes," she agreed when Chance picked out a few that were beautifully set but not so complicated that they would catch. In particular, he was interested in the gold ring with the slight curl to the design; the wedding band fitted underneath it to complete it when they were put together, twisting nicely without looking complicated.

"Sadie, we might have one for you to try on," Chance called out to Sadie, then looked over another two rings like it. "Or three."

"Okay," she said, sliding under his arm to give him a side hug. "And you're totally sure?"

"Oh yeah," he promised her. "I wouldn't be here if I wasn't." He ruffled her hair lightly. "You gonna hate having a second brother if she says yes?"

"No," she said, shaking her head, but she still looked a little confused.

He grinned at her as the lady behind the counter held out the ring selections so he could hand her one of the rings, holding it up for her inspection. "Pass muster?" he teased.

She gave him a crooked little smirk. "I think all of them are pretty."

"Oh good. Then I'm on the right track," he said as he let her try on the ring and then held up her hand to look at it for himself. "I kinda like it. Little big, but y'know."

"She's a size bigger than me," Sadie said before she rolled her eyes.

"Well, do you think Malin would want to try one on?" he asked as he handed the ring back to the lady behind the counter. "We can let Chloe try one on too so everyone gets a turn."

Sadie nodded her head at that and stepped to the side. "You know she likes sparkles."

"I'll save the sparkliest one for her, then," he promised.

When Malin and Chloe rushed over to take their turns, Chance couldn't help but laugh as he let them each try on a ring — and of course, Malin was perfectly tickled by the sparkly ring, though Chance was pretty sure that wasn't the one he wanted. The design was too complicated and three-dimensional.

He was pretty set on that first ring, and he couldn't help but smirk to himself about the fact that the few weeks' paychecks he _had_ gotten in Canada were enough to buy the ring. So, by the time they left the ring shop, he was riding pretty high. "Ice cream or hot chocolate? Up to you girls."

"Hot chocolate," all of the younger girls said, almost in unison.

Chance grinned at that. "Great. Hop in — let's warm up," he said as he jumped in his car, and Chloe vaulted into the front seat so she could grin at her big brother, with the group splitting up in the two cars to go to the little coffee shop further into town.

And as promised, once the girls were all sugared up, Charlie texted Elin to let her know that they were headed back — though as they drove, she was sure to give them her most serious raised eyebrow look before they got back home. "You know you can't breathe a _word_ of this to anyone — not even your parents or Elin. Let Chance do it."

"Okay," Sadie said as Malin nodded alongside her.

"We can do that," Malin agreed.

"You just have to keep a secret until Christmas," Charlie said with a little smile. "And then I'm pretty sure you'll know when it happens, because they'll be _ridiculous_."

Malin gave her a dry look. "We know how to keep _secrets_. Come on. Look at who our parents are."

"Yeah, exactly. Look who your parents are. They're going to be hard to keep this secret from," Charlie pointed out.

"Not if we just tell them you took us out for hot chocolate," Sadie said.

"It's true, even if it's not everything," Malin said with a nod. "So it's not a lie."

"And you did help us go Christmas shopping too," Charlie said. "That's what I told Elin."

Malin nodded at that. "Yep, but the part they didn't know was the chocolate," she said as if that explained all of it.

"And that's the most important part, Charlie. _Duh_ ," Chloe giggled.

"Well … it's more like … telling them something they don't know," Sadie said before she gave Chloe a little shove. "That helps."

Chloe grinned and stuck her tongue out at Sadie. "Yes, but chocolate is still important."

"Not to us," Malin said before she stuck her tongue out right back.

"Yeah, but you're weird," Chloe said.

Sadie shook her head as Malin reached over to pinch her hard, and Charlie just had to shake her head at the girls in her car as they headed in, though the good mood everyone was riding had her in an excellent mood herself all the way in. After all, this had been a _long_ time coming.

* * *

"Yes, Auntie Annie, I _promise_ that I'll be home," James said into his phone as he smirked Vanessa's way. Annie had been only slightly upset when his parents had skipped out of Thanksgiving with a text to Annie and Scott - and a phone call to their kids, promising to make it up to them when they returned. The text that came from Logan just a few hours earlier had Annie pacing, both worried on what might have gone _wrong_ and a little upset at the lack of warning for her when it came to something tiny like the shared birthday between James and Logan.

"And yes, I promise to eat some cake. I know you worked hard on it and I don't want your work to go to waste," James added. Then for good measure, he had to ask: "You want me to pick up anything on the way home?" He was smiling to himself - especially since Vanessa was flirting pretty hard right back at him.

"You know," Vanessa said with a shy smile. "You are incredibly lucky to have the family you do."

"I know," James agreed after he'd hung up with Annie. "She's probably the most thoughtful person Uncle Scooter could have found. But if you _tell_ her that, she blushes bright red and forgets what she was going to make you do. So … tread carefully."

"I'm not saying that to _manipulate your aunt._ "

"No, you were just saying how much you love the family. And I was agreeing."

Vanessa started to pack up for the evening, and James did what he could to help - though he was in the habit of leaving pretty much everything there in the lab at the tower. She was midway through folding up her laptop when she slowed to a standstill, and the smile slipped off her features. It was a look James was getting used to, even if he'd more or less quit trying to get her to stop diving in to the impulse to peek into the future. She _was_ getting better about it, just … not great.

He'd also learned to _wait_. That the visions she saw came to her cleaner and were over faster if he just left her be. But … that was also how she got lost in thought - staring into the futures of what ifs and how to help or hinder those visions. And considering how long it was taking her to even show the slightest bit of change in her stance - she was getting lost. He reached out and gently rested a hand on her wrist, and when that didn't get any kind of response, he gave her a squeeze.

"Sorry," Vanessa said after a moment. "I just … You're not planning to do anything to rile your aunt are you?"

James blinked at her innocently. "You mean impersonating a toddler with my piece of cake would be a bad thing?"

Vanessa burst out laughing and hit him in the shoulder. "You would _not_."

"I wasn't going to, but when you tell me not to … I _kinda_ want to do it anyhow."

"She's going to be so _mad_ ," Vanessa said. "I'm just … I hope it's not you she's mad at."

"Ah. So it's down to me or Dad, and since he's not here …"

"It's still blurry."

"Good! That means it's not something to worry about, right?"

"That's _not_ -"

"Sure it is." James smiled brightly. "Don't stress yourself out too much, please. I'm not going to upset Annie. And after talking her into something as uncivilized as _take out_ instead of letting her go nuts over cooking like a lunatic _again_ , the last thing I want to do is rile her up."

"The last time you said that, you had someone deliver banana bread to her from a _bakery_."

He held both hands out. "She needed a _rest_. And she said she could go for some … I took the hint."

"That wasn't the hint she was dropping," Vanessa laughed.

"Yeah? Which hint are _you_ dropping?" James teased - hitting close enough to the mark on how much Vanessa had fallen for the entire complex group that she stopped and let her shoulders drop.

"I'm not- not really."

"Okay." James nodded, barely holding back the smile. "Sure."

Vanessa rolled her eyes as she took his arm. "It's in the air, alright?"

"Yeah, I know," James agreed. "But you shouldn't get wrapped up in their drama. Focus on relaxing just a _little_ bit more."

"And get ready for the winter camping trip," she finished.

"Camping might be exaggerating," he said as the smile grew a little wider.

"That's what you told Mr. Stark," Vanessa said.

"That's enough to keep _Tony_ away," James countered. "I'm not going to ask you to go out in the woods to _freeze_ with me."

She started to smile wider to match him. "And if you say to _them_ that we're just going somewhere, they'll get nosy."

"And you didn't even need to see into the future," James teased before they started out of the lab. "Now … just forget about the visions if you can. Just for the rest of the night."

She popped up on her toes to steal a kiss that lingered for a long moment. "Only because it's your birthday," she said with a bright laugh before they passed Pepper on the way out.

The two of them might not have been as blatant about things as Elin and Chance were, but that was always going to be the case for James. He preferred to keep his business his own as much as possible - and with his sister drawing fire for him unintentionally, James knew he could get away with a lot more than he _should_ have.

* * *

It was the day after Logan's birthday, and after even missing out on the giant Thanksgiving festivities that Annie had concocted for the group at large, the two ferals finally found their way back home. Logan was in a fine mood, and K was neatly stuck to his side, both of them quietly going about their business as they tried to slip into the house unnoticed — but of course, that just wasn't going to happen.

Not when they had so blatantly ignored Kurt's question about their yearly drinking festivities.

They were only halfway out of the garage before there was a plume of dark smoke and Kurt stepped forward with his arms crossed. "So now you two will skip family festivities _and_ our drinking days?" he asked, which really only got a smirk from Logan as K pointedly looked the other way.

"I have my reasons," Logan replied.

Kurt shook his head at Logan and hit him in the arm. "They had better be _good_ reasons," he said, his tail twisting behind him.

Logan smirked wider and simply nodded his head at that. "Oh. They are." He looked at the way Kurt was standing and had to laugh. "Worked up, eh?"

"Of course — I missed my best friend's annual birthday whiskey party!" Kurt chuffed.

"No whiskey this time," Logan said as they started through to the kitchen.

"And _you_ missed the fact that Kate is finally allowing more than five minutes of Chelsea time," Kurt said with a bit of a teasing tone. "I think she might have let you put her to sleep on your birthday."

Logan grinned his way. "Well, if you're still hard up for baby snuggles … that might be fixed soon enough."

Kurt raised an eyebrow at Logan before he broke into a laugh and pulled Logan into a hug. "Well then, I take back my earlier anger," he said.

K shook her head at the two of them. "Go. Snuggle your daughter."

Kurt smirked before he teleported to K and swept her up in a hug as well, then disappeared in a poof of blue to go find Kate and Chelsea.

K was still shaking her head at the whole situation when Chance came down to the kitchen, clearly meaning to grab some coffee, though when he saw Logan and K, he broke into a huge grin. "Hey, welcome back!"

"How cranky was your mom when she got our text?" K asked when she headed over to take a seat.

"Pretty darn," Chance admitted. "But I let her in on some Christmas plans, so she was alright."

"Your dad wasn't too irritated, though, I'm sure," K said, lifting her cup to her lips.

"No," Chance said with a shrug before he paused and tipped his head at both of them. "Actually, since you're here ... I did have something I wanted to ask you both."

The two of them shared a look, and Logan nodded before he went over to get himself some coffee too. "Shoot."

Chance took a deep breath, rubbing the back of his neck. "So," he said slowly, suddenly a lot more nervous than before — since this had been way more _fun_ with Elin's little sisters. "So I ... I want to ask Elin to marry me."

"Oh, crap," K muttered quietly as Logan frowned a little and turned toward him.

"Isn't it a little fast for that?" Logan asked, now outright clear of his previous grinning mood.

"I don't think so," Chance said.

"There's not a _reason_ for the rush, is there?" K asked, eyebrows raised.

"No," Chance said quickly, raising both hands with his eyes wide. "No. I swear. I just… I love her. That's the reason."

K watched the two of them for a moment and considered cutting out of the discussion altogether, but she didn't want to leave the kid hanging. "And you're _sure_ you want to rush into this?"

"I'm not trying to _rush_ ," he swore. "I just want to marry her."

"How long have you been dating her?" Logan asked, crossing his arms and sitting back in the chair next to K.

"Six months," he said. "But I've loved her longer than that."

"How long do you think you've been in love with her, then?" Logan challenged.

Chance took a deep breath and met Logan's gaze. "Since I was old enough to know what it was," he said honestly.

"Chance ... " Logan said, almost in a sigh as he rubbed one hand over his face.

"I'm absolutely sure about this," Chance said. "More than anything I've ever done. More than the team." He bit his lip. "You have to know I wouldn't ask you if I didn't mean it."

"I'm sure you think you mean it," Logan said, nodding. "But I don't know if you're really giving it time to _know_."

"What is it you need me to do to prove I love her? Because I'll do it," Chance said, watching Logan steadily with his heart hammering in his chest.

Logan let out a sigh. "Does she know you're talking to me about this?"

He shook his head. "No. I wanted to talk to you first," he said. "And since K was here too…" He smiled K's way for a second before he looked back to Logan. "I want to do this right. Get permission. That's how I was raised."

K gave him a little smile, but Logan wasn't ready to be swayed yet. "Do you think she'll agree to it?" he asked.

"Yes," Chance said without hesitating. "If I have to ask her for years, I think she will."

K smiled a little wider at that and got to her feet, only pausing to give Logan a kiss on the temple before she started out to leave, though she gave Chance a squeeze on the shoulder when she passed him too, leaving the two of them to hash it out alone.

Logan looked a little more put out by K's exit but shifted his focus to Chance again easily enough. "You gotta keep working to get better," he said seriously, "because you're not anywhere near as good as you could be yet."

"Mom said that's what marriage is," Chance said, nodding along to every word. "You work together to be better every day."

But Logan was still simply watching him — and obviously analyzing his every move.

"If it's just that we're young—" Chance started to say.

"I don't care about that part," Logan said, shaking his head already. "If you _are_ the one for her, I want you to have as much time as you can together."

Now it was Chance's turn to fall silent for a moment, watching Logan carefully. "What do you want me to do? I'll do it, I swear," he said at last in an almost pleading tone.

"I don't want you to hurt her," he said, shaking his head. "But I don't know how to avoid that."

"I swear: I'll never do anything to hurt her," Chance said.

"Some things you can't avoid," Logan said. "It'll happen, and you won't be able to do a thing to stop it."

"It won't," Chance insisted. "I'd rather die than hurt her."

Logan finally pushed his coffee cup out of the way and leaned forward. "And that's what'll do it, Chance."

Chance stopped and stared at Logan for a long moment with his lips parted before he let out a breath. "I…"

"If you mean it — and you love her like you say you do — you can't take stupid risks that'll leave her in the lurch. It's going to happen eventually anyhow. But you need to make it your job to _be_ _there_."

"I will," Chance swore. "For as long and as often as I can."

Logan watched him for a long moment and started to shake his head. "Alright. I won't stand in the way."

At that, Chance broke into a huge grin. "Thank you," he all but breathed out before he couldn't stop himself and ended up throwing his arms around Logan's neck in a hug.

Logan returned it, but he was definitely not in the high spirits he'd been in before. "Don't screw this up, kid."

"I swear: this is the most important thing I've ever done," Chance said seriously. "More than making the team. I mean it. She's everything to me."

"Yeah, I know." Logan finally gave him a little crooked smile. "Do right by her."

"You know I will," Chance said, returning the smile with one of his own before he broke into a laugh and ran out of the room to go tell Charlie.


	7. Christmas Surprise

At the end of the first week of December, the whole mansion was buzzing with happiness. Things even seemed to be slowing down internationally (at last) and with the good mood from Chelsea as well as Chance's overall _joy_ , it was a great place to be.

And of course, the first week of December was also Malin's birthday, and without fail, Clint would show up with presents and candy — _none_ of which was Christmas related, because, as he insisted, she had to have her birthday before he'd even _look_ at a candy-cane.

And when he did show up, she was sure to give him a huge hug and a kiss — and then hand him a candy cane. "You can look now."

"Oh haha," Clint grinned at her but went ahead and bit the top of the candy cane off. "How's my favorite birthday buddy?" he asked through the bite of candy.

She grinned up at him. "Better now that I got my buddy-hug."

"Well, I should make sure to give you more of those," Clint said, spinning her around before he set her down, and, as usual, her pockets were filled with candy by the time she hit the floor.

But this time, when she looked up at him, she giggled and held up her right hand — with his wallet in it. "Ororo has been showing me things."

Clint grinned at that. "So she has," he said before he gave her a kiss on her cheek and took his wallet back. "I'm so proud."

"You should teach me some stuff too, you know."

"Oh yeah," Clint agreed. "What do you think — should I teach you some criminal cryptography? Knife throwing?"

"Um … _yes._ "

"Let's start with the knife throwing," he said with a crooked smile as he scooped her up to give her a piggyback ride. "When you get real good, we'll put your dad on a dartboard."

She giggled and wrapped her arms around his neck. "We might get in trouble. But … it sounds like fun."

"Of course it does. Trouble always _is_ fun," Clint told her with a grin. "And don't you forget it."

"Does that mean that we're automatically the most fun?" she asked.

"Um, _yes_ ," he agreed, swinging her around to dangle her upside down and tickle her. "Obviously! What kind of question is that!"

She was giggling madly and grinning at him. "Just checking; the other Hawkeye thinks she has the corner market on fun."

He just started to laugh as he pulled her up to eye level. "Now, let's get one thing straight," he said seriously. "I am _way_ funnier than Kate."

She leaned forward until their noses were touching for just a second. "I don't know. Have you seen her before coffee lately?"

"Funny 'haha' not funny 'ohmigosh it's a monster'," Clint said, matching her tone and grinning the whole time.

She grinned wider and could barely get out her response through the giggles. "She accidentally put formula in her coffee today."

Clint blinked for a moment before he burst into a solid laugh and set her down. "Okay, _that_ is funny. I'll give her that." He tipped his head. "C'mon, kiddo. I may or may not have a set of throwing knives with your name on 'em in some shiny purple wrapping. You don't mind spoilers, do you?"

She shook her head with her eyes sparkling. "I like spoilers."

"Course you do," he said with an easy smile as he led the way back to where there were even a few targets set up so Malin could try out the knives he'd brought. He was sure to crouch down to her level and explain to her, very carefully, how to throw them so that she didn't get hurt and reiterated that these were _not_ toys before he broke into a smile. "Gotta say that or your mom'll kill me — and then what will Nat do without me?"

"Just spend all her time crying and crying," Malin said in an almost sing-song tone. "Lost without her favorite guy forever."

Clint grinned at her before he stood up to demonstrate a few throws. "Course, this is more fun when it's spinning," he teased her in between tips on the right technique.

She waited until he'd done a few throws — so she could see what his timing was to aim — before she purposefully waited until just before he released the next knife to say: "So I'm going to be a big sister soon."

Clint's aim went totally wide and only barely hit the outside of the target before he spun to face Malin. "Woah, woah, back up." He tapped his hearing aide. "I must be on the fritz."

She was chuckling madly and shook her head slowly, then carefully signed it out too.

Clint blinked at her before he let out a bark of a laugh and quickly snatched her up to spin her around. "That's amazing!" he said.

"But..." she said, getting a truly troublemaking look on her face. "That is insider information. So. If you have any bets to win …"

Clint just laughed as he leaned in. "Smart money's always on your dad anyway," he said in a whisper.

"I won't tell Mom you said that," she giggled. "Kate and Kurt don't even know yet."

Clint mimed a zipper over his lips. "Not a peep," he swore. "But hey, we should let your parents say happy birthday, huh? Why don't you try tossing a few before we go inside and let 'em spoil you?"

"Okay," she said, still grinning before she started going through it exactly as Clint had shown her — and for the first time, she wasn't doing too badly. She didn't get a bullseye, but she was on the line between next two rings out. "Maybe when I'm not laughing so much," she giggled.

Clint grinned at her. "Maybe," he agreed. "But that was really good for your first try."

"Great teacher," she shot back easily.

"Atta girl," Clint chuckled before he started to pack up the knives. "Got the seasoned instructor, right?"

"Mm-hmm," she agreed, helping him pack it all up. "I'll practice for the next time you come by."

"And in the meantime…" He grinned widely at her. "You want a brother or a sister?"

She shrugged at that. "I figure sooner or later, I'll get both."

Clint couldn't help but laugh at that answer. "You're not wrong."

* * *

Chance got up early on Christmas morning — earlier than the others in his family… except for Charlie. Of course. Because she wasn't going to let him get out the door to his room without wrapping him up in a warm hug.

"You're fine," she promised him.

"Yeah, I know," he said, not meaning it at all for how hard his heart was hammering before he headed down the hall toward Elin's room, since she'd managed to talk everyone into letting her move out of the suite a few months early. Chance took a deep breath before he nodded to himself and then knocked.

"It's open," Elin said in a sleepy tone.

Chance smiled a bit when he heard it and let himself in. "Merry Christmas," he said as he made his way over with his wrapped box.

She gave him a sleepy sort of smile and pushed herself upright, since she was still snuggled into bed. "Merry Christmas to you too," she said. "Always have to be first, don't you?"

"Yeah, it's a thing," Chance agreed. He held out the box. "Made you something."

She shook her head and took the box before she opened the drawer next to her bed and pulled out a flat box of her own to hand to him. "I'm sure mine's not as impressive," she said.

He grinned as he took the box and quickly unwrapped it first so that hers would be second, grinning down at the digital picture frame with a cycle of team pictures in it.

"Always have to be first," Elin said with a little laugh, then sat up and pulled her legs into a cross-legged position.

"Yeah, it's a thing," he said again before he leaned over to kiss her.

"You said that earlier," she laughed, one hand on the side of his face when the kiss broke.

"Well, if you're going to keep pointing out the obvious, I need a rote response. Saves time," he teased and kissed her again.

"You're in a great mood," she said, shaking her head as she started to carefully unwrap the package. She couldn't help but smile at the handwritten and hand-drawn card — and the red-inked 'love you' with plenty of flourishes that he'd obviously spent some time with Kari on — and then paused when she saw the old, deeply green teacup, clearly broken several times and repaired with gold where the cracks were. " _Kintsugi_ ," she said with an appreciative nod. "Fitting." She took a moment and bowed as deeply as she could, considering how she was sitting. " _Doumo Arigatou._ "

He grinned and bowed to her and stole a kiss again. "I wanted to do something special," he said. "Check out the work at the bottom; it's intricate."

She grinned at him and picked up the cup, already set to turn it over, before she paused and stared at the ring that had been underneath the teacup. She was clearly in a bit of shock as she looked at the sparkling circle of gold.

He watched her for a moment before he went down to one knee and took a deep breath. "Elin, will you marry me?" he asked, trying very hard to meter it so it didn't all come out in one breath.

She glanced up at him and held his gaze for a long time. "Really?"

"El, I bought a ring, I'm down on one knee, I asked your dad — yeah. I'm serious," Chance said, somehow speaking while he was almost holding his breath.

Her eyebrows went up, and she seemed to stare at him a little more wide-eyed. "You asked my ... " Finally, she simply nodded her head, though she looked confused. "Are you sure?"

"You want me to get on the other knee too?"

"No," she said quickly before she slipped out of bed to join him, kneeling along with him. "Not even necessary to be on one."

"You know I was raised by a Hale, right? I'm gonna do this right, Elin."

She had already wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. "You're insane; you know that, right?"

"I'm perfectly okay with that," he said before he kissed her back. "But is that a yes or a no, because …"

"Yeah. It's a yes," she told him, though she still sounded a little off-base. "Of course it is."

"Just had to check. Never wanna assume," he said, though it was obvious he was relieved before he kissed her for a long time and paused only to ask, "Can I put it on for you?"

"Okay," she said, finally getting off of the floor and sitting back down on the bed. "But only if you want to snuggle up, too."

"Of course I do," he said, grinning as he followed her and took her hand, still smiling wider and wider as he pushed the ring onto her finger and then kissed her hand with a smile. "And here I was prepared to keep asking for the next ten years if I had to," he couldn't help but tease her.

She shook her head at that. "No, you would have gotten bored of that. At least by that time."

"Not a chance," he said with a smile as he climbed under the covers with her. "You know me. When I know what I want…"

She snuggled in, resting her head on his shoulder before she reached up to cover his mouth. "You don't know what you're talking about."

"Sorry to tell you this, El, but I know _exactly_ what I'm talking about," Chance said around her fingers and then kissed her hand again because it was there.

She shook her head lightly at him. "Is your dad okay with … well. With _this_?"

"Yeah, I told him around Thanksgiving," Chance said. "I mean… he was thrown off by it, but Charlie helped a lot."

She picked up her head to look at him a little bit better. "So, he didn't know before then?"

"That I wanted to marry you?" Chance shook his head. "I dunno. Mom wasn't surprised at all, but I think Dad … he didn't think we'd get here so soon, I guess."

She settled in again with a little 'hmm.'

"He's not gonna get mad at either of us if that's what you're worried about," Chance promised. "I think it's more… I mean… shock?"

"I'm not worried about it," she said.

"If you ask me, he's still shook up that he's old enough that I can get married," Chance said in a teasing tone to lighten the mood.

"Well, he's fine," she said. "There's still time before I can even legally be married. So. … plenty of time."

"Yeah, I guess I'm not good at waiting," Chance said with a little smirk as he kissed her. "At all."

"Oh man, you're going to kill Kurt dead," she said, pulling the blanket up a little further.

He grinned at that. "Sure he's not gonna kill me?"

"I think … he's more likely to panic and fall over or do that thing? You know? With his tail when it goes straight out?"

Chance couldn't help but laugh and nod his agreement. "Sounds about right," he agreed.

She leaned forward to give him another kiss. "And Dad didn't … like … make you run the gauntlet or something? Or make you feel like dirt? One or the other."

"He just made me swear to be there for you," Chance said. "And not to take stupid risks."

"Right, that and ... you know … my family holds the patent on that, so … you're not legally allowed."

"Well…" He grinned at her and kissed her again. "If I marry in…"

"Oh, no. No, no, no," she said, shaking her head. "Not allowed. Dad said so."

"Yeah, I know, I'm just saying: it was a real concern, marrying into trouble," Chance teased.

She leaned up and propped herself so that she had one hand on each of his shoulders. "Um … if it's that big of a concern ... "

"Nope," he said. "You're stuck with me now, sweetheart. You said yes."

"I did," she agreed, but she still didn't move. "I just don't want you to think you're trapped."

He grinned and stole a kiss. "Can't be trapped if this is where I wanna be," he pointed out, though he did end up pulling a dirty move and tickling her to get her to let up so he could pin her right back.

It was still early enough that they were able to stay in for a while longer, though obviously, on Christmas morning, they would be missed if they didn't go down to K's traditional breakfast — so eventually, they _did_ have to leave, both of them in excellent moods as they headed down.

When they got to the kitchen though, Logan was helping K out to get things done while she sat on the counter and supervised with a cup of tea in her hands. "Morning," she called out when the pair of them showed up.

" _God Jul_ ," Chance sang out with a smile.

"Atta boy," Logan said under his breath. "Butter her up."

"Don't make me get my buggy whip on you, mister," K growled out Logan's way, though that only got a crooked smirk from him and a low chuckle. "You two have a good morning or is it just coincidence that you showed up together with bedhead?"

Chance grinned over at Elin and then at K. "Better get used to it," he said, "because I'm marrying her."

Both Logan and K smiled a little between themselves as K waved him over to give him a hug. "Congratulations, sweetheart."

He grinned and spun her around. "Best Christmas ever," he agreed.

"Yes, well … easy with the spinning, big guy," she laughed. "Elin can fill you in if she hasn't already."

Chance's eyebrows shot up as he looked Elin's way. "El?"

"New baby brother or sister incoming," she said with a quiet smirk.

Chance gaped at her for a second before he burst into a laugh and kissed K's cheek. "I'd spin you again but — congratulations!"

"Thanks, sweetheart. Grab a plate; I've been supervising _this one_ all morning."

"I need supervision," Logan muttered with a smirk as Elin headed over to give him a kiss that ended up being a bear hug too.

It wasn't long at all, of course, before the others started to trickle in — led by Charlie, who had more or less been waiting for the right moment to come downstairs into the huge warm fuzzies all around and all but tackle her brother ... and then turn right back around and nearly tackle Elin too. "I'm so happy for you both I could just cry!" she gushed.

"Don't do that," Elin said with a laugh. "You don't want to cry on Christmas."

Charlie hugged her a little tighter and then stepped back and beamed at them all. "You better take good care of him. I'll know if you don't," she warned.

Elin put one hand on her hip and tipped her chin up. 'Really? When have I ever not taken care of him?"

"Hey, I have to do the warning thing. It's an older sister prerogative."

"Fifteen minutes," Chance grumbled — an automatic reflex at this point.

"Oh, right," Elin said, nodding slowly. "It's _your fault_ he has to be first at everything."

"Second born, second place," Charlie sang in a teasing tone, which only earned a horrible face from Chance.

"First of the year versus the last of the year," Elin said, clearly finding a way to spin it for Chance that he'd never considered.

"Mine has fireworks; his has hangovers," Charlie shot back.

"Yours is the death of an _old_ year; his is the celebration of a new one," she said, perfectly evenly.

Chance leaned over to K with a crooked smirk as he watched the two of them go back and forth. "See this? This is why I love her," he said.

"She's not even trying yet," K told him.

"Oh, I know," he said, smiling even wider.

"If James comes in to help …."

Chance started to laugh at that, right around the time that Annie came rushing into the kitchen, already thrilled as soon as she saw Elin. She didn't even have to ask if Elin had said yes — she simply picked her up and spun her around and planted a kiss on her forehead. "Welcome to the family!" she said with a beaming smile.

Elin couldn't help but laugh with her at that. "I'm not quite there yet," she pointed out.

"Oh, details," Annie said with a scoff. "You're part of the family, dear, so get used to it."

"I didn't think there would be much to get used to," Elin said.

Annie beamed at Elin and hugged her once more. "That's right. Because you're already mine," she said before she couldn't help but rush over to K to hug her too — too tickled to stop grinning.

K simply wrapped her up and gave her a hug right back. "Merry Christmas," she said with a little laugh. "You've been dying over this, haven't you?"

"For a _month_ , K," Annie breathed out as if it was the worst possible sentence. "Look at how happy they are!"

"They are adorable," she agreed. "But now, you need to get into some Swedish pancakes and cinnamon rolls. It's like a law now. And you know you need the energy."

"I won't argue with that," Annie said with a smile.

Of course, Scott's entrance was a little more cautious than Annie's full-tilt run, but when he saw the celebrating going on, he broke into a grin and was quick to go to Elin to wrap her up like Annie had. "Best news I've heard all year."

She grinned as she hugged him back. "Love you guys too."

"You know this is gonna make you a Summers now, right?" Cody asked with a crooked grin as he stepped into the room with his hands in his pockets.

She laughed his way and shrugged one shoulder up. "Maybe."

"Yeah, even if you don't change your name, still counts," Cody shot back. "Welcome to the crazy."

"You guys have a pretty structured crazy," Elin pointed out. "And I'm pretty sure some of your crazy crosses with our crazy, so … it'll be fine."

"Okay, as long as you know what you're getting into," Cody said with a grin before he darted over to hug her too.

When James made his way down with his younger sisters — one of them on his back and the other one skipping ahead of them — he took in the scene and let the two of them head over to tackle Chance clean out of his chair, supervising them with a pleased smirk.

Chance let out a bark of a laugh on the way down. "Woah, hey!"

Elin leaned over him where he was laid out. "They're just making sure you can handle our crazy."

Chance grinned at her but didn't even get up off the floor. "Yeah, I know. Goes both ways. This make me a Howlett now?"

"You wish," James chuckled, shaking his head. "I mean … it's a step in the right direction anyhow." He grinned at his future brother in law then headed into the kitchen then shooed his mother out to sit down at the table before he got himself some coffee and breakfastto sit down across from Chance.

Chance just laughed, though Scott raised his eyebrow toward K and then tipped his head at Logan working in the kitchen. "You in the doghouse or lose a bet or what?"

"Neither," Logan said, shaking his head. "Part of the deal, that's all."

Scott's mouth twitched up at the corner. "What deal?"

"Well, she wasn't lyin' when she said she wanted another one, so …"

Scott broke into a huge grin and then actually stepped into a hug. "Congratulations."

Logan chuckled and tipped his head toward the kids that were already laughing and having a ball with the news that the families were going to be mixed up. "Kid's face is gonna break."

"Yeah, I think Charlie's never going to come down from the buzz, either," Scott said, grinning even wider.

"Good," he said, nodding to himself a little bit before he picked up his mug again, still watching over the group. "She needs a break. Too damn serious lately."

"It's because she cares so much," Scott said.

Logan shook his head and tossed Scott an empty mug. "Go sit with your wife before she takes flight."

"Too late for that, I'm pretty sure," Scott said. "You're lucky the rest of them aren't here."

"Wanna have a little fun? Tell her about my wife, then sit back and watch the show," Logan said. "Elin told Chance, so I guess the word's out."

Scott broke into an even bigger grin at that. "Merry Christmas, Logan," he said, resting a hand on Logan's shoulder.

"You too, Slim."

Scott chuckled to himself as he went over to sit by Annie, who let out a gasp of pleasure and surprise after he'd spoken to her.

And beyond the two involved families, there were still others to get the good news - and Krissy had clearly been in on it, because she went right to Elin and grinned. "I look good in silver, purple, blue, black…."

"You really do," Elin said, leaning closer to rest her forehead against Krissy's. "And I like you in silver. Or maybe gunmetal. Something that is dramatic and shimmers almost as much as you."

Krissy grinned. "Silver," she said. "I like it."

By that time, the rest of the Wagners had come down as well, though Krissy had amazingly managed _not_ to tell anyone else about what was happening. Kurt had Chelsea tucked in his arms as he and Kate walked in together, though with all of the celebrating going on, he did actually look up from the adorable redhead with one eyebrow quirked.

"Merry Christmas," Kate called out to the group, though Kurt didn't echo it when he saw the ring that Elin was wearing and froze with his tail still behind him.

"What…"

"Grab some food before you pass out, Kurt," K called out from her spot at the table - her knees pulled up to her chest and her mug in one hand.

Kurt blinked at her for a moment before he shook his head and then simply sat down across from Elin and held his hand out. "May I see?"

Elin nodded and got up to sit closer to him so he wouldn't have to reach with Chelsea on his shoulder. She bit her lip and simply waited to hear what he had to say.

It took Kurt a moment to compose his thoughts before he finally let out a breath and smiled her way, kissing her hand. "Congratulations, _schtazi_ ," he said gently. "You deserve happiness."

"Are you okay with this?" she asked quietly.

"Oh, certainly not," Kurt said with a little laugh. "You're too young to be so grown-up."

"I don't mean to grow up on you," she promised with a little smile.

Kurt smiled a bit wider at that. "Yes, well, at least tell me you're not considering any other officiant."

"Who could ever hold a candle to you?" she asked before she leaned forward to give him a gentle hug and a kiss on the cheek.

Kurt pulled her into a tighter hug with one arm and then smiled more genuinely at her. "Congratulations. Really."

"Thank you," she said before she kissed him on the cheek again and then stood up and offered to bring him his breakfast. "Since your hands are full."

"You are so wonderful to me," Kurt said with a smile, though Elin didn't get far before Kate snagged her and pulled her into a kiss on the forehead with a whispered 'thanks.'

Elin gave her a hug too and then slipped into the kitchen for a minute, which was just enough time for Kate to sit next to K. Which left the two of them with their heads together to pick at Kurt. "He's just so … snuggly," K said, loud enough for Kurt to hear and quiet enough to keep it between the three of them.

"You forgot adorable," Kurt said with a smirk her way.

"Oh, that goes without saying," she agreed. "I can't believe I'm the only one that asked the _real_ question, though. You are all slackers."

"And what is that?" Kurt asked with one eyebrow raised.

K shrugged openly. "Well … what reason is there to rush into it?"

Almost immediately, Kurt was right back to his earlier alarm as he spun in his seat toward Elin. "Elin?"

"No," K said, shaking her head. "But no one else even considered asking but me." She tipped her mug up and shook her head slowly. "Must be on my mind."

At that, Kurt couldn't help but smirk. "Any particular reason?"

"I'm pretty sure you're smart enough to do the math at this point."

Kurt grinned at that and reached out with his free arm and his tail to pull K into a hug. "Congratulations."

"It's just that kind of morning, isn't it?" K said as she leaned into the hug and reached up to run a finger over Chelsea's cheek.

"A very merry Christmas," he agreed.


	8. Charlie's Choices

Even when the semester had started back up and Charlie was back at NYU, she was _still_ riding the high of the good mood back home. Literally everyone was happy for some reason or another, whether it was the Wagners with Chelsea, the Howletts and Summerses with the wedding on the way, Logan and K with their little one, literally _everyone else_ with some combination thereupon… Charlie could hardly go ten steps without getting hit with another wave of giddiness.

Actually, it was almost a relief to go to school, because she had never thought she would get overwhelmed with _good_ feelings until then. It was just so _much_.

Not that she was complaining in the least. She'd never seen her brother so happy, and even if she was closing off her usual avenues of leeching the good moods around her, she couldn't help but get caught up in all of it - which was why she had a few bridal magazines in her backpack that she was peeking at all during her first week on campus, when the homework was still light and the high was still in the air even this far away.

She knew that Krissy was already working on Elin wanting to get involved with _the_ dress, but Charlie was more interested at looking at some of the other stuff. The details. There were some good tips in there, too - like the fact that it was smart to have someone pack a picnic basket of food for after the reception so that the bride and groom could actually get a bite to eat when it was hard to get any food in the middle of a big party where everyone wanted to talk to the bride and groom.

She wasn't sure if that would be the case with Chance and Elin, since Elin didn't like to be the center of attention, but she was getting that same sort of frenzied high of emotions off of Krissy and Sying and figured, hey, what didn't work for one would work for the other wedding that she _knew_ was going to come.

Her friends, apparently, liked to get married young.

"You're caught up in it too?" Gerry asked as he came to sit down beside her. He still had one more class to get to after this one, and since they were riding together to and from school, she didn't mind waiting for him - and he usually brought her a snack in between his last two classes "to get her through" while she waited.

It had only been four days, and already, he had a pattern.

He dropped into the seat and plopped a bag of mini donuts in front of her. "Everyone's caught up in it. Krissy's been emailing me questions about what she should do to be a bridesmaid like I know thing one about it. I keep telling her to just run with it, but you know how she is."

"Has she started emailing you ring pictures?" Charlie asked with a sly smile.

"Yeah, why?"

Charlie chuckled as she opened the bag of donuts. "She's covering her bases, making sure her friends know her style so if Sying asks for advice, she gets what she wants."

"That is giving her _way_ too much conniving credit."

"You have hawk-shaped blinders when it comes to your family," Charlie laughed. "She can be sneaky when she cares to be. She's actually _excellent_ at infiltration. She just doesn't choose to be normally."

"If you say so," Gerry said, leaning over her shoulder to look at the dresses she was looking at. "Okay, but you can't walk in, like, three of these."

"They're just for show."

"That's stupid."

"I didn't say _I_ wanted to wear one," Charlie said, rolling her eyes at him.

"You didn't say you _didn't_ want to wear one either," Gerry pointed out as he took a bite out of one of the donuts. "You can admit it. You wanna."

"No way," Charlie laughed. "When I get married, it'll be in a sundress," she said, flipping a few pages to show the light and breezy dress she liked.

"You say that now," he said, shaking his head slowly. "But you're overlooking the fact that you _are_ indeed thinking about it."

Charlie let out her breath and reached over to hit him in the arm. "Okay, yes, I admit, I like the dresses. Can't a girl dream? I don't need to have prospects to like the _dresses_."

He grinned her way and shrugged. "I don't know. For those dresses …"

She hit him in the arm again. "It's a bigger deal for girls than you boys. When you find some cute girl, all you have to worry about is the color and the _tie_."

"I'm not … arguing that," he said. "So touchy."

"I'm not even _dating_ anyone, Gerry," she said, rolling her eyes at him. "Half the guys around here are morons anyway." She flipped the magazine closed and then flipped open one that had advice on the best flowers for the best seasons. "You know they're not going to wait long, so I mean… April… something light, right?" she said, fluttering her eyelashes.

"You're not pulling me into any more of this nonsense, Lottie," Gerry chuckled.

"You'd better get used to it. My twin brother's getting married. It's only going to happen once," she said.

"Yeah, I know, you're allowed to be excited," Gerry finally allowed as he stole one more donut.

"Oh good, as long as you've given me permission," she teased, giving him a quick squeeze. "Don't you have a class to get to?"

"I'm thinking seriously about just showing up on test days, Lottie. Three lectures in and I swear he just reads the book word for word. I could do the same thing at home," Gerry said.

Charlie smiled. "I wouldn't complain about getting home a little early."

Gerry grinned and helped her pack up her things, and they headed toward the car together, with both of them ribbing each other - Charlie about Gerry's classes and Gerry about her wedding-happy obsession.

They were just about to the car when someone knocked into Gerry - from the looks of him, a football player. Gerry cheerfully accepted his apology, but Charlie was frowning after the guy and stepped out of her seat for a moment, her hand going to her pocket where the panic button was.

"Lottie?" Gerry prompted when he saw the look on her face.

"I'm not sure yet," she said absently. "But… I don't think that was a football player."

Gerry frowned and stepped out of the car. "I can go-"

"No, no," she said quickly. "No… I think … that was a Marauder."

"How do you know?"

"They all have this sort of dull feeling to them, I think because Sinister's mapped himself and his will onto them. It dampens their personalities, their minds…" She frowned and got back in the car. "Let's get out of here."

"Not gonna argue there," Gerry agreed, quickly starting the car and zipping out of the parking lot.

* * *

But while Gerry and Charlie were on edge after their Marauder encounter, Chance and Elin were perfectly relaxed and enjoying themselves. During the day, they were training with their dual leadership of the team - sparring with each other and making plans for both the team and for their almost nightly dates.

And since Chance hadn't yet moved out of the Summers' suite - because his graduation had been a little muddled with everything with Canada - that meant he usually just followed Elin back to her room.

"You think your dad has caught on that you don't want your own room since you're just waiting for a _bigger one_?" Elin teased.

Chance grinned at her. "Yeah, my dad's a strategic genius. I'm pretty sure he can figure it out."

"I hope so," she said with a shrug. "Never know, though. Could be a quiet protest."

"Nah," Chance said. "This is pretty straightforward. You're my girl; I'm staying with you." He grinned and kissed her just to make the point.

"If that's the case, you need to change it a little," she suggested. "The room doesn't have much 'you' to it."

"We could put a big poster of Reginald the moose right smack dab in the middle of it," he teased, grinning crookedly.

"Well, if you're missing Canada," she sang out slowly, just letting the statement hang.

He shook his head at that and kissed her. "Yeah, screw Canada," he said, pulling her down to snuggle up with him. "I dunno, El. Whatdya want, a John Wayne movie poster?"

"I don't know," she replied, though she got comfortable quickly and instead gave him a little kiss right back. "Not like I did much to make it mine, either."

"We'll put up pictures," Chance decided, wrapping his arms around her middle. "You know, we got a couple digital frames… pictures of the team…" He paused as his grin grew more crooked. "Pictures from the wedding…"

"You might be waiting a little while. I know Charlie's pushing for, like, the day after my birthday but … come on."

"I have no problem with that plan," Chance said, perfectly straightfaced.

She nuzzled into his neck and gave him a quick little nip. "I only have one request - the rest I leave up to you guys."

"Name it," he said, grinning wider still.

"Sunflowers and red roses."

"Done," he said. "I'll even braid some in your hair," he couldn't help but add with a teasing smirk.

"You're being ridiculous," she said, settling in right where she was. "But I just really like that for a bouquet - and it's the only one I never got."

His lips parted for a second in understanding as he realized the connection between flowers and Nolan that she was trying to avoid - and then he couldn't help but smile as he leaned in and kissed her. "I'll get you a whole shop full of sunflowers and roses if that's what you want."

"I'm going to have to start calling you 'Overkill'," she teased.

"Okay, but that's way less cool than 'Shadow', and I like 'Sweet Summers' way more," he said, nuzzling into her hair.

"That's an easy fix, though," Elin replied, smiling to herself. "Just don't overkill."

He nodded seriously and then leaned in to kiss her again. "Just focus on the important stuff, right?"

"That's the idea, yeah," she agreed.

* * *

The whole mansion -with very few exceptions- seemed to be in a similar mindset as the more involved adults, too.

Vanessa had been on cloud nine since the holidays, considering that James had managed to find her a very simple but well thought-out Christmas present that she simply couldn't stop playing with. It wasn't nearly as elaborate as some of the other things that had gone back and forth - but the meaning behind it was a real killer.

And that's what she was doing as they finished setting up the new lab down the hall from Hank's med bay. She couldn't seem to leave the greenish-blue Tahitian pearl alone. It wasn't even a strand - just one on the end of a chain - but seeing as her whole family had lived in Hawaii and the South Pacific for several generations, it was a tiny piece of home so far away from the warm waters.

And considering that it was almost the same color as the sea, it was quickly becoming her little bit of home to focus on when she was feeling out of sorts.

Of course, it was a toss up on what it was that had her feeling so out of sorts. She didn't know if it was the colorful little pearl or the fact that she found herself drifting into her visions as she played with it - looking into the most pressing matters for those closest to her.

Her visions weren't as broad as Billy's - though he'd been sure to spend a little time with her coaching her through and learning to sort out what scenarios were more likely than others so she didn't lose herself to distraction.

Because that _had_ been a problem for her: seeing what might happen and being afraid to act when it didn't want to shift to something more pleasant in spite of changing her reactions to things.

She was watching as James tried out one of the new soldering tools. She was gently, _absently_ rolling the blue-green pearl between her fingers when he glanced up at her and realized what she was doing. "Stop that," he said, holding her gaze for a long moment before she finally cracked a smile his way and seemed to snap out of it.

"It's just … I'm afraid someone is going to hurt Gerry," she said with her nose scrunched up. "He hasn't hurt anyone - and it's not … anyone he's really dealt with … but… I can't see it right."

"It's _Gerry_ ," James said, going back to his work. "If they don't like him, they're evil. That's just a fact."

"But it's not just …" She let her shoulders drop, and she headed over to where he was working, though she wasn't sure what the new project was yet. "It's not _normal_. It keeps shifting. And it's like … I don't know. It's superimposed."

He stopped and put the tools down. "How long?"

"I don't -"

"No, really," James said. "How long? A week? A month? When is there actually someone breathing on the planet that can't enjoy five minutes with Gerry Drew?"

"It's not _just him_ ," she said as she hopped up on the workbench.

He raised his eyebrows and took a step closer to put one hand on either side of her on the bench. "Are they going to go after the whole team? Because … well, that seems a little ambitious."

She smiled at him and shook her head - but he could see the worry that she had going on. And the more she talked, the more it was clear that she was overthinking it and muddling her own vision of things - it was a vicious cycle that she hadn't figured out how to pull herself out of yet.

So as soon as he saw her really fretting over this vision that she couldn't clearly see, he simply leaned forward and kissed her until she relaxed and stopped trying to _force it._

"You need a break?" James asked, and when Vanessa simply nodded quietly, he picked her up off of the bench and headed out with her. "Then I guess we'll start our date a few hours early."

* * *

Sying and Krissy were also hidden away on the _Cherry Bomb_ , though unlike when Sying had been dating Penny, it wasn't a matter of trying to _hide_ anything - just a matter of finding a little privacy. Between Krissy's parents fluctuating between the high of her new little sister and the freakout Kurt was having at the babies he and the other X-Men had raised now being old enough to get married … and Sying's dad going on more missions for Scott with K out of the picture… their families were plenty busy. And Krissy and Sying weren't quite old enough to ask for their own place either.

Not that the _Cherry Bomb_ minded at all. She was almost as bad of a flirt as Krissy and Sying were, and she could practically anticipate it when they needed a little privacy or when they wanted adventure instead of romance. It was almost like having a little empathic prompt climbing into the ship, because the _Cherry Bomb_ would turn down the lights when they were both in the mood for romance - or rev up the engines if it was time for some fun in the stars instead.

At the moment, the two of them were curled up sharing a blanket with some hot chocolate watching the stars pass as the _Cherry Bomb_ continued its orbit. It was the perfect lazy, cozy way to spend their time, and they weren't planning to come back until the next morning.

Which was probably going to get them _looks_ from Kurt, though both of their moms seemed to be tickled by the two of them getting together, and Noh just seemed to think the whole idea made _sense_ , so why fight it?

"So," Krissy said suddenly, "has Chance told you when the wedding is yet? Because according to Elin, she's just leaving it up to the rest of us to _run with_."

"Ah, no," Sying said. "I have no insider information, sorry."

"You have completely and utterly failed me," Krissy said with a sigh.

"Hey, you're still friends with Chance. It's not like you can't, you know, _ask_ him."

"Yeah, but when I do that, he gets this look on his face and starts asking me questions about when _I'm_ planning to get married," she said with a little huff. "He's learned deflection _way_ too well from Ellie."

"That or he wants you to be happy too," Sying pointed out.

"You're taking his side?" Krissy asked, one eyebrow raised.

"Woah, there are sides now?" Sying asked. "Which one's the one where you're happy? I'm on that one," he added, breaking into a teasing grin.

She shook her head at him and leaned over to kiss him. "He's just… Chance."

Sying nodded, and the two of them fell silent for a while as they enjoyed their hot chocolate. After the silence had gone on for several long minutes, Sying had to speak up again. "So, are you?"

"Am I what?"

"Planning on getting married?"

For a moment, all Krissy could do was blink at him before she tried to shrug it off. "Well, yeah. I mean. I want that happily ever after. Everyone does, right?"

"Well, yeah," Sying said.

"Don't know if I could do what Elin and Chance are doing, though," Krissy admitted. "I think my dad would _die_."

Sying couldn't help but smirk at that. "Yeah, probably."

"He's already having issues with Elin…" Krissy pushed her lower lip out in a pout and then quickly shook her head. "Anyway, it doesn't even matter right now. I don't even _graduate_ until May. So can we just… can we just have hot chocolate and let that be okay?"

Sying nodded. "Yeah, sure, we can do that."

Krissy smiled at him and snuggled in so that her head was just under his chin. "Besides," she said quietly, "I could never make it that long of an engagement. I'm too impatient."

Sying couldn't help but smirk to himself. "Yeah, good point."

* * *

"So. What are you doing mid-July?" Chance asked as he came up to tap on his sister's shoulder with a crooked smile.

Charlie spun around and couldn't help but laugh when she saw the grin on Chance's face and threw her arms around his shoulders in a hug. "Really?"

"Yeah, really."

"When did you decide this?"

"After I figured out when roses and sunflowers are blooming at the same time. I mean, you can get them a little earlier than that, but the peak time's late summer-"

"You're waiting until July because of _flowers_?" Charlie asked, her jaw dropped to illustrate just how much she couldn't believe _that_ was the reason.

"Hey, Elin wants these flowers," Chance said with a shrug.

"Elin?"

"Yeah - what, did you think I was hung up on roses?" Chance asked, turning to her with one eyebrow raised. "She wants 'em; I'm going to get them for her. It's not like she asks for much, Charlie."

"No," Charlie had to agree. "But… I mean, really? July? Not April?"

"I know, I know. The wait is killing me too," Chance said, though he spun her around in a hug. "But the way I see it, that's more time to get everything just right. And more time for you to look through those magazines of yours…"

"You're going to drive me insane with your anticipation and nerves, you know that?" Charlie shot back.

"Can't help that. You could always try and turn it off," Chance pointed out.

"Why would I do that?"

"And there's your problem," Chance said with a laugh before he leaned over to kiss his sister's cheek. "Relax, Charlie. You're not even the one getting married."

"I just want my brother to be happy. Is that so horrible?"

Chance spun her in a hug. "I _am_. And you know it. And I'm making her happy. And that means sunflowers and red roses, so that's what we're doing. Simple as that."

Charlie couldn't help but smile at him. "You're a romantic."

"Yeah, it runs in the family," Chance agreed before he gave her another squeeze. "I gotta go tell Mom."

"The whole house will hear when you do."

"Oh for sure," Chance agreed. He squeezed her hand on the way out. "Oh, hey, Dad wanted me to remind you to wear a tracer. Marauder sighting, standard protocol, yadda yadda, I told him you were already freaked out as-is and on high alert, but expect to hear it from Cody and Chloe too."

Charlie gave him a tight sort of smile. "You don't have to play it cool for me, Chance. I know she freaks you out."

"Uh, yeah. But she freaks you out too. And you get all worked up, and I'm getting married this summer. There's no reason to get worked up - yet."

"Yet."

"You can hear 'em coming, Charlie," Chance pointed out. "Just keep your empathic ears open and hit the button when you hear them, and a bamf will get you out before she gets close enough to see what color shirt you're wearing," he promised with a warm smile.

"You're sweet."

"Yeah, that's why my fiance calls me 'Sweet Summers,'" Chance said with a wide grin.

"You love saying that, don't you?"

"Fiance?"

"Yes, that."

"Uh, yeah. Gonna like 'wife' better, though."

"But you're postponing for _flowers_."

"You're just going to have to get used to it, Charlie," Chance said with a smile before he headed off. "Take care of yourself, okay? College is apparently a scary place."

"Oh, go kiss your fiance," Charlie laughed at him, shooing him with both hands.

"Gotta talk to Mom and Dad first, but then, I'm _so_ on it," Chance promised with a laugh.


	9. Something Sinister This Way Comes

Billy _had_ been playing with Margaret Rogers, letting her fly around after she'd fallen asleep after her birthday party and woke up with _way_ too much energy. Billy promised he didn't mind, especially with Sharon on a mission and Steve just back from one right before the party, so he and Teddy were on babysitting duty for the time being.

Or, at least, they were, until the future shifted in front of Billy's eyes, and he found himself looking at his friends and family fallen around him, a menace in the shadows operating through a puppet…

It was hard to pin down the future when there were so many possibilities in front of him. But the fact that almost all of them ended _badly_ and in war and destruction had him sitting up a little straighter.

"I got her," Teddy said quietly as he plucked Margaret up to start tossing her in the air and playing with her.

Billy squeezed Teddy's hand gratefully as he tried to focus a little more on the _immediate_ future to see where he could step in most effectively. And he was surprised to find that it was right where he was.

Right now.

Billy scrambled to his feet as the problem teleported itself into the Tower. Which was a different move than usual - probably what had pinged his radar so dramatically when he _had_ been focused on the here and now.

But what Miss Sinister couldn't possibly have realized was that when Billy was concentrating hard enough, he could see everything just a few steps ahead. It was _almost_ like being able to see an invisible person, because he could see where she would be, the path she was planning to take and the doors she was planning to open.

So it wasn't quite like seeing through invisibility when he tracked her down - right up until the moment he stretched out a hand and muttered, " _You'renotinvisible You'renotinvisible You'renotinvisible_ " right as he turned the corner that Sinister was about to turn herself.

Sinister looked honestly surprised as she shimmered into form in front of Billy, whose hands were still outstretched and glowing. He deflected an optic blast with a spell, and the glow behind his eyes only intensified. " _Sitdownandshutup sitdownandshutup sitdownandshutup_ ," he chanted - which, admittedly, was not his cleanest spell, but it was _very_ satisfying bending Sinister.

As Sinister looked outright shocked - since she'd never actually faced Billy and clearly hadn't realized what he was capable of - Billy glared at her. "You're not getting in here. You're not getting into the mansion. And if I ever catch you here again, I'll start tearing powers out of you. I'm more powerful than the last person who did that, and I _won't_ leave loopholes," Billy said in a voice that echoed slightly with anger as well as power, though he went a little further when Sinister glared at him and reached out with a wordless spell - he could pull those off when he was at the height of a Demiurge episode.

There was an audible sort of crackling noise as the energy of the spell flooded Sinister, and all of a sudden, the red glow faded. For just an instant, it was _Jana_ staring back at Billy while Sinister's essence was pushed back.

Her eyes widened, and her lips parted before she let out a little gasp and Billy rushed forward to give her a hug. "It's alright. It's alright," he whispered as he tried to help her keep it under control. "Don't freak out. You need to block him out. Focus."

But that lasted for only a moment for as badly as Jana was freaking out. Her mind was wide open, and it didn't take much before the red glow returned.

Billy's shoulders fell when he saw it, though that was all the opening Sinister needed to shove Billy far enough away from herself to teleport away, and Billy let out a breath of frustration.

"At least she's fighting him now," he muttered to himself before he picked himself up and teleported to Steve's door to knock on it. "I know I said you could sleep while I watched Margaret, but there's a thing that's happening."

Steve was up in a heartbeat, though he did look a little weary. "What can I do to help?"

"I'm… I'm not sure yet," Billy admitted, and Steve definitely noticed that the galaxies were swirling brighter than usual, and Billy's voice still hadn't lost its echoing quality. "There's too many possibilities. Whoever it is out there hasn't actually settled on a plan, so I can't defend against every possible plan…" He took a breath when he realized he was speaking too fast. "The point is… Sinister was just here. In the Tower."

"Sinister," Steve said, his eyebrows raised. "As in Mr. Sinister?"

"Ah, well, yes, Miss Sinister right now would be more appropriate, but yeah," Billy said. "I cracked a big opening in Sinister's control over Jana's mind and body for a second, but her consciousness has been pushed down for so long she's not strong enough to take advantage of it."

Steve looked like he had to weigh it all out for a minute as he scrubbed one hand over his face. "So what do we do from here? Contact Cyclops and warn him? Or do you think it's isolated?"

"It's definitely not isolated," Billy said. "But he's not… it's … it's not his usual thing," Billy said, frowning to himself as he paced a little bit and shook his head. "Teddy's going to hate this. We were going to Maui for our twentieth…." He ran a hand through his hair. "Yeah, yeah I'll talk to Scott. But Cap… this wasn't research. Not… not his usual stuff. I can't explain it yet because he's not - someone _else's_ decisions are influencing the future, and they haven't made up their mind yet."

"Someone is influencing _Sinister_?" Steve looked as if he flat couldn't believe it.

"I'm really not sure," Billy said. "All I know is that someone else's decisions are overshadowing what he wants. I don't know if that's control or influence or if it's just consequences."

"Whatever it is, it's not good for anyone," Steve said with a nod, though he was clearly trying to figure out who might be pulling the puppet strings and hoping it wasn't the same person who had controlled and demanded of Sinister in the past - though that seemed far out of reach.

Billy nodded. "I think I slowed it down by giving Jana a way to fight, so I'll try to see… I'll spend some more time watching the future and see what threads start coalescing."

"Sounds like the solid start to a plan," Steve admitted. "Not sure what you need me for at this point."

"I just… he got into the Tower, Cap," Billy said.

Steve smiled and nodded. "I know, Billy. Thanks."

Billy nodded and readjusted his cape. "He came here looking for mutants. That much I do know. So I guess the thing to do here is watch out for the twins and the girls- Zoe, Leslie Ann, Eleanor…"

"Right. I'll let them know."

"Thanks. I'll - I'll let Scott know. While this is still fresh. And then maybe take Teddy someplace extradimensional for our anniversary so we're back the same time we left. I don't really want to leave when there's something so big on the horizon." He gave Steve a distracted smile and then nodded. "Right. Yeah. Anyway. Sorry. I just thought you should know," he said before he simply disappeared to go tell Scott that Sinister had reared her head again.

* * *

There was an honest tone of frustration to the air of the hidden away laboratory in Wisconsin. A slow, even dripping accented the fact that there was a stream near by the lab where Sinister could easily take a break and simply watch the scenery.

But there had been no such breaks for quite some time, not with the imminent threats to her longest-running experiments. She absolutely had no tolerance for anything that wasn't going to be in line with what she could scientifically prove was best for mutantkind.

And the latest sample - no, _threat -_ had come from a marginally acceptable specimen at best. The Drew boy had the X-Gene but also far too much else that, like the Lee-Varr line, muddled her work. But this was bigger than Jubilee and her alien. This was threatening her _life's work._

Instead of her usual reaction, giving her subjects a chance to correct their erroneous judgement on their own … she felt _moved_ to do something about it. But what?

With a frustrated almost snarl, she lashed out. The test tubes and slides that had been so neatly set out found themselves crashing to the floor before she bellowed for the nearby men to clean up the mess. She didn't have _time_ to fix this. She didn't have _time_ to manipulate things to get rid of the boy more naturally.

Not when so many of her _other_ tests were insisting on participating in what she considered to be a gradual dilution of the X-gene. That would explain why it took so many mutants to manifest in recent years so much later than the onset of puberty - like they were supposed to.

It wasn't ideal for new mutants to find out what they were when they were already set in their ways and less apt to try and master their gifts. It was beyond frustrating.

As the glass shards were carefully swept up, the doctor rested her head in her hands, eyes closed tight as she tried to ease the pressure at her temples. She was a _scientist._ She had no desire to dirty her hands with trash. Not when it was so blatantly obvious her own pet project was trying to go so far off course. _Again_.

And yet, her head was aching with an internal war as two different priorities vied for control. Her focus was on the Summers family - as always. Along with her favorite patients. But the more she tried to decipher a solution to the dilution of strength in those two gene pools, the more the pressure built at the back and very front of her head, almost as if a white-hot skewer was driving into her brain.

And the more she tried to ignore it, the more insistent the pain became. It was all she could do to stay on her feet. Her hands grasped the counter for balance, and her fingers curled up as the scream rose in her throat, though she did her best to tamp it down. It had been so much easier to shove aside before the pesky Kaplan boy had tried to dislodge the controls she had over her current vessel.

Sinister had nearly collapsed when she could no longer ignore the message behind the pain, and once she succumbed to it and let her own desires fall to the wayside for the moment - everything lightened up.

All at once, she was on her feet, striding with a purpose as she left the lab for the first time in months. She barely turned toward one of her more adaptable Marauders as she strode past. "I want updated information, and I want it yesterday."

* * *

It was still snowing, a February blizzard that hadn't quite let up even though the worst of it had blown through - which was why Elin was the one driving when she and Chance went out on a date.

Billy had warned Scott about the problem with Sinister, but seeing as the resident harbinger seemed to think it was something other than the usual "screw with the Summers family" nonsense that had been going on lately, there wasn't really much anyone could do about it. As long as they had panic buttons - and a bamf hiding nearby - they could go about as usual.

And as soon as Billy had something more solid for them, the X-Men would act on that, too. But for now, it was simply a matter of heightened security on an already tight machine.

Elin and Chance decided that, in spite of heightened security, they deserved a night alone - so they went out to the sushi place in town. They were grinning at each other without much spoken for a long while. They had been spending all their time with each other, with the team, and with what Elin was sure was far too much wedding prep. So while the excitement had gotten down to a low buzz, that didn't mean Chance wasn't grinning and staring at Elin every chance he got.

"You're starting to draw attention to yourself, handsome," Elin said as she gave his hand a little squeeze.

Chance grinned and shook his head. "You got it wrong. Everyone's in awe of you. Half of them are jealous and the other half are madly in love."

"You are delusional, Sweet Summers," she laughed, though she was smiling all the while.

"And you said yes anyway," he pointed out. "You must like it."

"I like _you_."

"Well, I can work with that," he said with a smile. "I love you."

"Love you too," she replied, still shaking her head at him.

The two of them were still grinning at each other when there was the muted click of a camera and a young woman about twenty years old let out a little giggle. "Ohmigosh. When is the wedding?" she gushed.

"I'm sorry, do I know you?" Elin said, keeping the smile in place as best she was able, but there was a glint in her eyes that was not there a moment before as she gave Chance's hand a little squeeze and let go to turn partially toward the girl.

The girl grinned, and it was clear she was filming now as she waved behind her phone camera. "Alyssa Jones," she said. "You probably don't watch the Pod-X-Cast, but we've got a million subscribers? All about the heroes - everyday mutants to the X-Men… you know… that kind of thing?" Alyssa looked hopeful for a moment, waiting for any recognition.

She shook her head lightly. "I can't say that I've seen it."

"Darn." Alyssa's shoulders slumped slightly before she managed to perk up again. "But - hey - maybe I could get a minute? I mean, it's _obvious_ you two are just the sweetest together. How long have you had the ring?"

"Not up for discussion," Elin said, though she kept the smile right where it was.

"Well, what can you tell me?" she asked.

Elin looked around the restaurant for a moment and raised both eyebrows. "Well … the chef here is great."

"Oh, come on," Alyssa pouted. "You don't have to send me an invite - but you're the first wedding in this generation of X-Men!"

"Not up for discussion," Elin said again, this time with a frown.

"Not that we don't appreciate the well-wishes," Chance said with a little smile Elin's way before he shrugged toward Alyssa. "What's there to know? I love her; she loves me - the rest is on us."

"It's just that a year ago, you were on Alpha Flight, and then there was that whole thing with the Canadian government and the drugs and everything and-"

"If you want to know more about that, I'd defer you to my father," Elin said.

"Oh, no, I wasn't asking about that part!" Alyssa said with wide eyes. "I just wanted to know how you got from there to _engaged_."

"Yeah, no, see," Chance said, leaning forward a bit, "that had nothing to do with anything. You can't draw a line from my being _drugged_ to anything else in my life. End of story."

"We got there the same way everyone else does," Elin said, shaking her head. "Please, leave it at that."

Alyssa looked visibly disappointed but nodded all the same. "Well… then … do you have any message for our viewers?"

"I don't know your viewers well enough to brandish advice or anything else," Elin said.

Chance nodded along with her. "You said you focused on all types of heroes, right? Go find someone who's _doing_ something worth talking about."

"And talk to them when they're not waiting for their drinks," Elin added.

Alyssa let out a little sigh before she nodded and did a quick little sign-off of her video and headed out, though Chance waited until she was out of earshot before he leaned forward to smile at Elin. "So that's a thing now."

"Yeah, things like that have happened when I was with Dad. But … they never asked more than one question. I must not be doing it right."

"Your dad has, like, a century's worth of experience over you. Give it time," Chance said with a smile.

"He's got more than that," she laughed lightly. "But yeah, it looks like that's a thing. It was going on a little bit when you were kind of out of the loop, too."

"X-Fans," Chance said with a smirk.

"Well, that's new," she said with a scrunched up nose.

"No, Kate told me about the website with all the good news stories… I think it's been going on for a while. Just never got to see one in person," Chance pointed out.

She rested her chin in her hand and watched him for a moment. "What did you see on the computer? Don't tell me you didn't look. I _know_ you did."

Chance shrugged lightly. "Yeah, I've seen all of 'em," he admitted. "Everything from that site David runs to one calling for more humans in the X-Men and Avengers to one that says only alpha mutants should be _allowed_ to do any fighting…"

"Wow," Elin said, eyebrows raised. "That's an awful lot of opinion for a buncha keyboard commandos."

"Yeah, well, anonymity makes opinions louder somehow," Chance said. "There's also a lot of goodwill for the junior, squad, though. Probably helps that we're so good-looking," he couldn't help but tease.

"Well. That's your cross to bear, then."

He chuckled at that. "Yeah, no, consensus online is that Sying is the cutest, if I'm being honest. Takes after his dad."

"So you _are_ up on it," she said, nodding slowly.

"There was a while there where I couldn't do much else?" Chance pointed out. "And then there was the debacle with everyone saying I was doing drugs… I was trying to get ahead of it. There's still a lot of ill will."

"Is that where you were getting some of your bad intel?" she asked.

"What bad intel?" Chance asked with his nose scrunched up.

"About how many admirers I have when clearly … the number is in the single digits. Can count 'em on one finger …"

Chance grinned. "I'm the only one you care about, anyway," he pointed out. "The rest of 'em just can't help but know a gorgeous girl when they see her."

"You're shameless."

"Not even a little bit sorry," he shot back.

She reached across the table again and offered him her hand. "Do you think it's worth watching - those websites?"

"I think a couple of the more fanatical ones could turn into something we don't like if we're not careful," Chance admitted. "There's a lot of us versus them on both sides - getting some 'get rid of humans' and 'get rid of mutants' and everything in between."

She nodded as he listed off what he knew. "I'm glad you've been paying attention to this drivel, then, because I've been putting my efforts into you know … training."

Chance shook his head at her. "Hey. You and me - we look out for the team. And if someone's out there-"

"Mmhmm, and while you're looking at creeps cyber-stalking Sying, I've been stuck having Uncle Steve give me pointers on how to deal with professional reporters."

"You do it so well, though," he teased.

"Captain America coaching," she said.

"Yeah, well, if it makes you feel any better, I've been getting coaching from Dad," Chance admitted. "How to look for threats … he wants to start giving me a rundown of protocol for talking to different organizations…"

"Well, you'll have to learn to do it _without_ flirting? So I'm expecting a fail …"

"I don't know what you're talking about. The world will be in love with me. Instant peace. You're welcome."

"If that were true, wouldn't we already be holding hands and singing kumbaya?" she had to tease.

"Nah, the last time I was on the world news, I was a druggie. Gotta hit it when I'm co-leader with my beautiful wife," he said with a crooked grin.

"And I get to be the pretty background, right? Stab anyone that says anything stupid."

"No, no, you're more than background. You're the big guns," Chance said with a steadily growing laugh in his tone. "I can handle the UN. You have to take on the next J. Jonah."

"You know, Mom said he's fun," she replied with a grin.

"See? Big guns."

She had to laugh at him. "I'm not the big guns."

"It's okay," he said with a smile as he leaned over the table to steal a kiss. "Don't know if you've noticed, but I'm partial to guns."

"I totally walked into that one," she said, grinning his way.

"You did, and I love you for it," he said easily as their orders finally arrived.


	10. Most Spectacular Failure of All Time

When James finally decided he was trying out for the team, he didn't really want to tell anyone about it. It wasn't a case of nerves by any stretch, he just thought he'd do it first and then mention it in passing or simply show up to practice. Either way, he was entirely sure that it wasn't going to be anything to get excited about. Not when everyone else had already done it.

Like Elin, James' set of tests all happened stacked on top of each other. But seeing as he was gone all the time for lab work anyhow, no one really noticed when he disappeared after his morning workout with his father to go to LA and have Ororo give him the first test.

He wasn't sure what to expect from her, but he managed to work through it quickly enough — and apparently, he managed to ping off a few markers that showed he was following in his father's footsteps, profile wise.

He managed to do the solo portion of the test exceedingly well, but … the parts that required teamwork or even leadership ended much like Ororo had expected, considering how much time James had been isolated from the others. He could do it, but not nearly as well as a solo endeavor.

And he wasn't bothered by Ororo's assessment in the least. "Not sure what anyone expected," he muttered when Ororo insisted on taking him out for a celebratory dinner before he went back east. "Not like I've really been around anyone much for a while now."

"It simply illustrates where you need to focus your efforts," she told him with a warm smile as they headed down the road, though James of course heard far more criticism than what her words actually carried.

From there, he didn't even go to New York. Instead, he stopped in Chicago on the way to do the test the next morning with Kitty. He got up early and was sorely missing his usual morning routine of a long, grueling run followed by tai chi and a spar … but this was test day, and he assumed that he wasn't supposed to be relaxed when they started.

Of course, Kitty had spent almost a week figuring out how she could even test him, considering the kid's tech savvy levels were off the charts. But she was sure that she had something that would work.

His simulation started much the same as everyone else's … an under fire 'break the code' to save your team kind of situation. Though she was sure to toss in a few monkey wrenches his way.

For starters, once he got past the first layer of coding, it all shifted into Kree, and then Shi'ar, and then some really bizarre stuff that Peter Quill suggested from one of the more advanced races on the outer reaches of the galaxy. James managed to breeze through all of it until the end with almost no break or pause, but when he hit the one Quill had suggested, he frowned, narrowing his eyes at the odd markings in the middle of the code. He let out a little 'hmm' with a crooked expression on his lips before he just dove in again — and figured out through a little trial and error how to work around it and shut down the self destruct sequence.

The sim died, and he looked up at Kitty, who was of course smirking his way in an overly pleased manner. "Not done just yet," she said before she gestured to the control console in the center of the room. "Beat the teacher."

James smirked right back and nodded before he headed over to the console — and on Kitty's mark, the two of them started working fast to break into each other's console. Of course, Kitty wasn't testing him for that part — she just wanted to see how much he'd improved — and when she hit the section of code that James had thrown up in Swedish, she swore outright as he chuckled and kept on rolling.

"You are cheating," she shouted through the comm with her teeth gritted.

"Says the woman who put in … what the hell was that anyhow? I don't think I've even seen that language," James countered moments before Kitty swore again when her console died.

"Cheater," she said, pointing a finger his way.

"I learned from you," he sang back to her, smirking a little wider as she phased through the wall and walked down the air to wrap him up in a hug.

"You learned from more than me," Kitty replied as she hugged him tightly and then pulled him a little closer. "But it is high time we celebrated. I can't believe it's taken you this long."

"Didn't really want to do it before," James admitted. "And I figured that I was spending enough time in the lab … didn't think I could or that anyone would let me at this point."

She shook her head and rolled her eyes. "Yeah. Hugging you is just like a teddy bear." She poked him in the side with her eyebrows raised. "Gonna break my finger poking at the muscles. Who gave you permission to grow up this fast?"

"I'd blame Kurt. Sounds like him. Yeah. His fault, totally," James decided, nodding to himself as Kitty burst out laughing.

And after another small celebration with Kitty and Peter, James was too keyed up to stick around for the night. He knew better than to assume that his father wouldn't kick off his test at dawn before he could talk to Scott, so as soon as Kitty had gotten her fill of quality little brother time, he headed back to Westchester.

"You know you have to get through Scott first, right?" Elin said when James came to see her the night before he was supposed to start the Westchester testing.

"Yeah, but I wouldn't put it past Dad to go out of order just to do it," he said as he simply sat on the floor in her room, leaning against the dresser with his arms around his knees.

"He's not going to screw with you," Elin swore. "At least not like that. Come on ... you know he wants to see you wherever it is you want to go."

"Yeah, that's why everyone's best suggestions have been for me to go hang out with Avengers," James said, leaning his head back.

Elin let out a breath and made her way over to sit next to James, leaning her head on his shoulder as she took a hold of his arm. "You know Mom and Dad hated that," she said quietly, and he nodded. "And you know that they just wanted you to stretch out a little, right?"

"Yeah, I know," James said. "Just … kinda wonder if I shouldn't have purposely failed some of those tests."

"They would have known, and you'd have been busted anyhow," she told him. "And you'd have been in trouble for lying."

He leaned his head against hers and let out a little breath. "True."

The two of them simply sat there for a long time, and Elin didn't say a word, knowing that James was anxious, though she was 99% sure that he was putting himself through it all on his own.

And that was how Chance found them when he came in a short while later — just the two of them leaning against each other and talking quietly enough that Chance would have needed to know how to read lips to know what was happening.

"Okay, I should probably get out of the way, then," James said, sitting up a little straighter. He gave Chance a little smile. "See you later."

"I can come back," Chance offered. "Pre-test nerves are killer, I know."

"I know I didn't tell you anything about that," James said.

"Yeah. And you know me and El run the team, right? Course we know when someone makes it to my dad," Chance pointed out.

"Lots of people make it to your dad but don't go any further," James replied.

"Yep," Chance said with a nod.

"He's not exactly nervous," Elin said as James got to his feet and pulled her up with him.

"Yeah, this is one of those 'if they don't want me, the Avengers do' kind of things," James said, trying to blow it off. "It'll be fine."

"Yeah, well, try and make it anyway," Chance said, sliding into the space Elin had occupied so that when she sat down again, she would be sitting with him. "We want you more."

"Right," James said in almost a laugh. "See you at coffee."

"Knock 'em dead," Chance said.

As soon as he was gone, Elin turned to give Chance a kiss. "Cross your fingers. He's getting down on himself already."

"He'll do fine as long as he doesn't talk himself into bombing out," Chance said.

"You're joking, but that's actually a real possibility," Elin told him.

Chance leaned over to steal a kiss and then nodded. "Somehow, that doesn't surprise me," he admitted. "You really that worried?"

"Not yet," she said, shaking her head. "But it's been a while since he's needed a minute with me, so that's a little concerning."

"Team's a big deal," Chance said. "Worth freaking out over."

"He's more concerned that he's spent too much time in the lab, honestly."

"You could argue that with Gerry, and he got in to jockey to replace Hank," Chance pointed out. "Place for everyone."

"Yeah, but there isn't any spot that's situated already that he thinks he could step in for."

"So we make a new one," Chance said with an easy shrug. "I think between us, we can get creative," he teased.

"He would look at that the wrong way," she said, shaking her head with a little sigh. "And as much as he says it'd be fine, he really doesn't want to go to the Avengers."

"Well, he'll either do it tomorrow or he won't," Chance said. "But if he talks himself into bombing, I will hit him. Fair warning."

She smiled lightly and kissed his cheek. "Odds are good that if he feels that way about it in the morning, he just won't do it at all."

"Dad's worried about that," Chance told her. "The giving up thing."

"Of course he is," Elin said. "I just hope your dad keeps in mind how young James has been when he's given up on some of these very adult things."

"Yeah, he has pretty serious rose-colored glasses with the godson," Chance pointed out.

"Good," Elin said, nodding. "Because James is already half convinced that he can't do anything all the way without letting people down."

"That is seriously unhealthy," Chance pointed out.

She shrugged at that. "True. But … he's been trying to keep up with adults for how long now?"

"Also true," Chance agreed, then stole a kiss. "If he needs a pep talk…"

"I doubt he'd listen, and he's probably off to find 'Nessa anyhow," she said.

"Getting serious," Chance said with a smile.

She turned and frowned his way a little bit. "You're just now noticing?"

"I… was distracted," Chance said as he nuzzled into her neck with a smirk.

"Yeah, I know … but so has everyone else." She smiled a little. "You have no idea how serious those two are getting."

"Gonna get a new sister-in-law," Chance said into her hair.

"Honestly wouldn't be surprised," she said frankly. "He managed to get her away alone for a weekend. He's fallen pretty hard."

"Good. The more the merrier," Chance said, still nuzzling deeper and deeper into her hair.

"Am I neglecting you?" she said with a crooked grin.

"Oh yeah," he said with a smirk. "How dare you make me share you with your brother?"

"He's my little brother," she laughed, carrying on with the joke. "My only brother. Really. The weirdo with the mohawk doesn't count."

"I dunno, I have some far off family too…" Chance pointed out. "Which reminds me. Nate said he'd be there. For sure. With Hope. For the wedding."

"I just assumed that he'd dig up every Summers from the past 200 years …"

Chance chuckled and then simply turned her into him to kiss her hard. "Forget brothers right now," he murmured when the kiss broke. "My turn."

"Oh, I don't know," she said, pushing back a little bit. "I mean, you're kind of being greedy. And I have sisters that need turns too."

Chance just laughed at her and then pushed her back until he was pinning her and grinning. "Nope. Not happening," he teased.

She smiled up at him and then gave him a kiss. "I could so totally flip you."

"Uh-huh," he said with a crooked grin.

"Is that a request to see what Mom taught me last week? Or … just a tease?"

At that, Chance grinned wider. "Uh-huh."

"Okay, but now I'm starting to worry that you just like it when I slap you around." She was chuckling to herself and grinning up at him.

"Honestly, I can think of better things," Chance said, grinning down at her.

"Then pick something that won't make me want to toss you across the room," she replied as if it was the most obvious answer in the world.

Chance just laughed at that and simply started to kiss her hard in response.

The next morning, James made his way back into the mansion after his morning run. He wasn't exactly worried that Scott was going to try and hammer him hard enough to make him collapse, but if he did, it wasn't like he couldn't recover from it. It was still early, and James simply made his way over for coffee and had a cup in one hand and a pen in the other as he doodled on some blank paper, waiting for the world to wake up.

His father had been sure to inform him that he wasn't going to get to spar until after the testing was done — or at the very least, it wasn't happening on the days he was testing. So between the warm coffee and the doodling, he was thinking pretty hard by the time Elin came down, took the seat next to him, and removed the pen from his hand. "Stop. That."

"Well, I have no choice now," he said, sitting up and leaning back in his chair.

"Did you have breakfast yet?" she asked, smirking his way when he lifted the mug and gestured to it. "No, James … that doesn't count."

"Maybe later you can take me out."

"You mean if you're not busy with Vanessa?"

"Or … we can all go?" James said with a shrug. "Unless that's not going to work for your fiance, who … I still think I need to challenge to a duel or something."

She reached over and patted his back. "You do that. After you finish your tests."

"Okay," James said before he very dramatically put his head on her shoulder. "I did the crossword in the morning paper. Think Dad'll notice?"

She chuckled at him and took his mug. "I'll give you a refill."

"Best sister ever," he called back, ready to hang around until he heard what the plan was with Scott.

And by the time Scott and Annie got down to the kitchen, Elin and James were joking around, smiling and conversing in Japanese - just so they didn't have to include anyone that couldn't keep up.

"You ready for the test?" Scott asked as he sat down next to James.

"I guess we'll find out," James replied.

Scott smirked at that and nodded as Annie sat down beside Scott and reached across him to rest her hand on James' arm. "You'll do wonderfully," she assured him with a bright smile. "Scott's very excited — aren't you, Scott?"

"Thanks, Annie, for the telegraph," Scott said, shaking his head at her before he kissed her cheek anyway.

"I'm sure it'll be memorable for you," James said. "Either way."

"Wouldn't expect anything less," Scott said with a smirk into his coffee, though he didn't press beyond that, and for the most part, that meant breakfast had passed in relative quiet until Scott got up to take his plate and Annie's to the sink. "War Room in five minutes," he told James over his shoulder.

"Got it," James said with a nod, letting him go ahead in case he had something he needed to do alone first.

When Scott was gone, Annie made it a point to slide over and wrap James up in a hug. "I'm so proud of you," she told him sincerely.

"I haven't done anything yet," James said, though he was sure to hug her back just as warmly.

Annie just smiled at him. "James, honey, if you think you have ever had to do anything to make me proud except for being who you are, you haven't been paying attention," she told him before she finally released him. "Now, make me proud-er."

He couldn't help but smile a little at that and then gave her a kiss on the cheek. "You set the bar low."

"It's called unconditional love, James," Annie said, ruffling his hair. "You'd think you'd be used to it by now with how much you're surrounded by it."

He ran a hand through his hair and shrugged. "Yeah, still."

She just smiled at him and squeezed his arm. "You'll do fine," she assured him. "There's not a thing you can do that would make any of us think any less of you. So just go - be yourself."

"Alright," he said, then turned to leave, though he spun on his heel to give her a little smile. "Let me know if Dad notices the crossword, okay?"

"I'll stay right here," she promised. "I'll be baking anyway. You know how I am."

James nodded and headed out, his hands in his pockets as he went. When he got to the War Room, the door was open, and he knew Scott was waiting, so he didn't bother knocking before he slipped in with a quiet 'hey'.

Scott smiled up at him and tipped his head James' way to indicate the seat, and James took it without further comment. "I'll give you the same speech I give everyone who gets this far, alright?" he said in an easygoing tone. "I go through a round of questions for everyone. I'm not trying to single you out, but I will be asking about things that are specific to you. Got it?"

"Sure," James said, nodding once.

Scott leaned forward. "So we'll start with the obvious. Why the change of heart? You've been putting this off for a while now."

James drew in a deep breath and took a moment to find the right wording. "I don't think I was anywhere near ready to consider it before. Like — if I'd done it sooner, it would have felt like I was just going through the motions. If that makes sense."

"And now?" Scott asked with one eyebrow raised.

"Now … I am a lot more aware of what's happening around me, and I don't want to waste away in Stark's labs."

Scott couldn't help but smirk as he nodded, though he did at least try to school his expression. "And do you think you won't be wasting away on the team? I know you were worried about redundancies."

"I'm still worried about that," James said with a shrug. "But I think that if anything happens with Elin, you might still need a nose at the very least."

Scott couldn't help but shake his head. "Think about it this way," he said. "You wouldn't think that Chloe and Cody shouldn't both be on the team if they chose it because they have the same power set, right? Or that Kate and Clint shouldn't team up?"

"Kate and Clint shouldn't be on the same team. The hospital bills … No."

Scott chuckled. "They used to run just the two of them, you know. No one else."

"I know. And I've heard the stories behind the scars."

Scott nodded. "But you have to admit, no one thinks we need to only have one person who knows archery or swordsmanship."

"No, I know," James said, his gaze on his hands. "Just makes me wonder how useful I'd be to anyone when you have Dad and Mom too. That's a lot of repetition."

"You all put your own spin on it," Scott pointed out. "And you know it's not about the power set. It's about the person. I'd rather have a hundred people I can trust with the exact same powers than two people with the best powers in the world that I can't."

"Careful what you wish for," he said half under his breath.

Scott smirked. "I'm old enough I doubt it'll happen in my lifetime, anyway."

"Sounds like a challenge. I still wouldn't do that."

"Don't tell Kurt or he'll die of happiness," Scott shot back.

"Yeah … I think we still want to keep him around." James peeked up at Scott, though he kept his chin tipped down as he waited for the hammer to drop, though he was pretty sure Scott couldn't see how anxious he was.

Scott couldn't help but chuckle and nod before he took a deep breath and let it out. "Alright, so - you've decided you're ready to go out for the team, but are you ready to dedicate the time?" he asked. "I know you're busy with everything else, and I don't want to run anyone ragged. Not that you can't do other things and still be on the team."

"I'm not as busy as you'd think," James replied.

"That's not an answer to my question."

"Yes. I'm able and ready to dedicate the time and energy."

Scott seemed to hold his breath as he studied James before he nodded. "And when you get bored of this too?"

"I think I've only been getting bored because I didn't really want to do the other stuff," James admitted.

"But you do want to be on the team," Scott surmised. "Not that I'm not thrilled, but you have to admit, the track record is enough to give me pause."

"Yeah, terrible track record for everything," James agreed quietly, his focus on his clasped hands. The pit of his stomach seemed to drop as he thought about all the times so far that he'd failed everyone already. And up until just then, he'd always listened to that feeling and stayed back from discussions like this that pointed out his inadequacies. He did that to himself quite enough. But he knew he needed to answer honestly. "I don't know what to tell you other than it's not the same."

Scott watched James for a long moment before he nodded. "I just don't want you to get on the team and then drop it the moment it gets hard," he said. "Or the moment you make a mistake."

"I haven't quit anything because it was hard," James said as his gaze darted up to meet Scott's. "And I stopped the other stuff because I was going too far — because I was bored with what I was being told to do. Fix Stark's programming … edit out tech issues … didn't want to do it in the first place, and the only reason he set me to it was because he didn't want to either."

"And what if you're asked to do something on the team you don't want to do?" Scott asked.

"As long as you're not asking me to spend six months fixing Stark's failed code, I don't think it'd be an issue."

"You never know; there are some missions that involve a lot of prepwork and a lot of dead ends."

"That's different," James pointed out. "That has a purpose. This was purely busy work. It was a placeholder to keep me there, honestly."

"That's well and good when it's me giving the orders. But your sister and Chance are the ones leading the team together. Can you listen to them?"

"Like I haven't been listening to my sister for forever?" James countered.

"That's not an answer, and I'm being serious," Scott said, which had James shifting in his seat. He wasn't trying to irritate him or push any buttons.

"I don't have any problems with either of them," James said. "And I do better following. Ask Storm."

"Even if you disagree?"

James nodded slowly. "Yeah. That's how I thought it worked."

"I just know that you can be stubborn — not that it's a bad thing; I can't really talk. But you have to admit that once you've decided something, you can be impossible to sway," Scott pointed out.

"Yeah, that's true enough," he said. "But it usually takes a lot to get me there."

Scott nodded slowly. "Alright. Last thing." He watched James carefully. "I know you know how to hold back. But I also know that we recently had to bail you out of jail. Can you stop when you're told?"

James met his gaze and nodded with a frown simply because he thought Scott already knew all the details from that night. "Yeah. Of course I can. Chance stopped me that night. Didn't have to fight me for it either."

Scott's eyebrows shot up as he studied James for a long moment and then nodded. "Alright. Let's get you to the Danger Room," he said. "If you're sure this is something you want to do, you know I'm not going to stand in your way when I agree with you."

"Okay then," James replied cautiously before he followed Scott to the Danger Room. The two parted company as Scott headed up to the booth and James went into the testing room.

Scott started off James' test the same way he did everyone else. The MRD sim was always fun to watch — and James did everything he could to make it fast and seamless.

As soon as he saw the grouping of the MRD soldiers, where the civilians were, and how they were armed, James narrowed his eyes and looked around the entire street scene before he darted off into the shadows, only to reappear a short moment or two later, taking out one after another with quick strikes and even using their own gear against them. After the fifth soldier, he swiped a billy club and the grenade belt off of one and then made good use of both, gassing the scene — which dispersed the civilians quickly — and then working through the smoke to take down the soldiers even as a few of them opened fire into the smoke blindly.

But still, once he'd cleared the trouble, the sim ended — and then shifted into a fight with Brood this time, just to shake it up from the Shi'ar, Kree, and Skrulls that the others had battled. Clearly, he wasn't expecting the vicious creatures, but as Scott had hoped, James turned the heat up and fought his way through the pack all the same — even disarming their vessel before he managed to take out the queen. It was a solid run.

With a concerned frown, Scott started up the last sim. It was always interesting to see how the kids fared on that one, and it usually would showcase where they needed help most, in addition to giving them a peek into what Logan's test would be.

So that's how James found himself walking through Salem Center in broad daylight when the junior team attacked him, with Cody starting the assault with a beam that knocked James clean off of his feet. It was a dirty shot — but one that Cody wasn't afraid to use in the heat of a fight. It took James a few precious seconds to gather his senses, but he managed to dodge before his sister caught up to him.

Elin attacked in all the ways he'd expected her to, going for his legs to get him to the ground, alternating with head shots just as their dad had taught her — and like so many of their sparring sessions, he was keeping up just fine. Until Chance joined the fight too. One was hard enough to work with, but both of them building off of each other while he was trying not to hurt them was a little more than James was prepared to deal with. After Elin hit him hard enough to stagger him, James put up both hands and dropped down to his knees in surrender.

The sim died, and as Scott did for everyone in this test, he didn't say anything except, "Hit the showers."

James didn't even bother trying to catch his breath before he popped up to his feet and headed out, too used to the same kind of trick from his dad to put much thought into it initially.

Scott met him when he was done and was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. "Why'd you surrender?" he asked, genuinely curious — since almost everyone who ran that test tried to get through and didn't give up until they were solidly screwed.

James frowned and tipped his head to the side slightly. "I was gonna lose anyhow," James pointed out. "Seemed smarter to surrender so I was in better shape to break out later."

Scott tipped his head to the side and let out a little sort of 'huh' as he nodded, then couldn't help but break into a warm smile as he stepped forward and pulled James into a hug. "You did great. Honestly."

"Is this normal?" James said. "The hugging?"

"No," Scott said with a smirk. "Just for my kids."

"Okay, but if I hear later that you don't do this for the next Howlett that comes through, we're going to have to have a talk."

"If either Sadie or Malin decide to join the team, you and I both know I wouldn't even have to start the hug — they'd get there first," Scott said with a smirk.

James nodded at that but kept his gaze to the ground for the most part. "So …"

"So, go find your dad. You passed, James," Scott said, grinning outright.

"Alright. Thanks," he replied, though he kept the serious expression in place as he headed off at a normal pace to talk to his father. He had to make it through one more day, since he knew his dad was going to block off the entire day to run the gauntlet and make James go until he couldn't go any further.

He wasn't disappointed, either. Logan was stoic and understated when he told James to meet him at six the next morning, cutting the kid's running time off — and warning him without saying as much that he needed to not try to do his usual wake up beforehand.

As the morning wore on, word got out that James was finally taking his test — and onto his final one at that. By the time the afternoon rolled around, there was a pretty solid gathering of kids that had grown up with him waiting to hear the final verdict.

Of course, in the room, Logan was just as brutal with James as he'd been with anyone else, and the hard calls that he was forcing the boy to make were realistic enough and harsh enough that by the time he'd gotten to the final one where the mansion was in pieces, James was completely worn out. But he wasn't about to quit for anything.

After the standard first failure of that sim, followed quickly by second, third, fourth, and so on, James was growling low before his father even got to reset. It was clear he wasn't about to give up on this stupid program. And Logan watched carefully, seeing for himself that the boy was too ticked off to simply hide like he was supposed to do.

The last time that he set the sim up for James, the kid stood there for a moment watching the scene, still as a statue. Finally, just before Logan moved to get the police to engage him, he turned his head, tipped his chin down, and took a running start at the spot where he knew the soldier troops were hidden in the trees.

Logan bit his lip, trying not to laugh to himself as James worked the program. It was almost laughable, truly. He knew everything that could go wrong, and he used everything against itself for as long as he could.

The soldiers went down to friendly fire, the police to their own smoke bombs, tear gas, and a stolen rifle. The chopper that swooped in to pick up Logan and K never got close enough — unable to avoid the grenade that James lobbed into the cockpit — and the explosion that followed managed to take out more authorities.

The kid managed to avoid most, if not all, of the crossfire, to the point that Logan had to reach over and kill the program, one hand over his eyes as he couldn't help but laugh at the outcome. Which was most definitely a first.

When Logan got a little better control of himself, he reached over to hit the button. "Though I appreciate the effort, that was still a fail."

"But you said it would only end if it was a kill shot," James argued, his hands on his hips as he glared up at the booth. "I didn't get a kill shot, Dad."

"No, but you worked the flamin' sim," Logan said in an amused voice. "Totally missed the point."

James curled up his lip and stared back at his father in disbelief, then turned slowly to look at the scene around him that was frozen as Logan had killed it. Yet he still couldn't see it — and it was that much funnier to Logan when James voiced his opinion. "Oh, come on," James said, throwing both hands in the air. "I was doing fine."

"You're too much like your mother," Logan said with a grin, leaning forward. "You had no way of knowing going in where all those players were; you'd never have made it that far if you hadn't failed it so many times first. You played the damn system, son."

"Hey," James said, pointing at him. "You're the one that said I could run it until I got it. I had it!"

"That wasn't what you were supposed to do," Logan said, though he was smiling at him and shaking his head. Another first in the history of that test.

James took another moment to look around the scene, his arms crossed, working his mouth over as he thought it through — only to let his shoulders drop. Logan could see the moment that James got it — and it was even funnier from the booth. "Oh. No," he said, turning again to look at his father, who was smiling crookedly at him now that he got it. "Hide? Dad, thats just dumb."

"Maybe," Logan agreed with a grin, shaking his head at him. "But that had to be the most spectacular fail I've seen."

James let out a disgusted sort of noise and kicked a SWAT helmet across the simulated lawn.

"Come on, let's go up," Logan said as James swore his way through the disappearing sims and met his father at the door, only to give Logan a disbelieving look and head to the showers to clean up.

"Well?" Elin asked when her dad made it upstairs well before James did. She was more anxious to know than James was, and she didn't have the patience to wait for James.

"It's getting late," Logan said. "Let him heal up and you can celebrate with him after he sleeps it off."

Elin broke into a grin and wrapped her arms around her dad's neck. "Are you going to tell me about it?"

"Let's give him the chance to tell it himself," Logan chuckled, which had Elin even more curious than before. He was never in a good enough mood to laugh after an assessment, so whatever James had done — she knew it had to be good.


	11. Superior Rising

"Hey," Gerry said as he caught up with Chance in the garage. Gerry had just gotten back from NYU, and Chance was headed out on a mission assigned by Charlie and Chloe to get them something nice for the wedding — with the catch that he had to pick it out himself. If he stayed at the house, he'd get caught up in the collective nerves that were going around while they waited to hear from Logan if James had passed the final test or not, so it was a welcome distraction on all fronts.

Chance looked up from his phone, where he had been looking up some stores on his GPS. "Hey, Ger," said with a smile.

"So, I have a question for you, and keep in mind that my birthday is tomorrow, so people will notice if you, you know, murder me," Gerry said as he leaned against the car with his arms crossed.

"Yeah, because that makes it real likely for me to not wanna murder you right off," Chance smirked.

"It's just that I know how you are about Charlie and—"

"No."

"I haven't even said anything yet," Gerry said.

"You can't screw my sister around, and I know for a fact you don't like her," Chance said.

"What?" Gerry looked honestly taken aback.

"Charlie'd know if you did," Chance said. "And she's always talking about how you're good _friends_." He shook his head at Gerry. "I recognize the tone, Ger. And she's actually got a reason for it, unlike me."

Gerry still looked completely gobsmacked as he stared at Chance, and he started to slowly shake his head. "No," he said. "I really do want to ask her out."

"Not me you gotta convince, Ger," Chance said. He put a hand on Gerry's shoulder. "I know you wouldn't hurt someone you were serious about, but Charlie isn't interested in someone who's just looking for a good time, you know?"

"That's not what—"

"Tell that to the girl who can read emotions," Chance said. He gave Gerry a small smile. "Much as I'd love my childhood best friend for a brother? Twin sister comes first. Always."

"And she should," Gerry said, then bit his lip. "I'll talk to her," he decided.

"Alright, but if you screw with her, I'll put you in the ground," Chance warned.

"Yeah, I got that," Gerry swore, holding both hands up before he gave Chance a little smile. "But if I can convince her?"

"Then, hey, threat still stands, but I won't say you _can't_ date her," Chance said. "She's pretty good at knowing when it's time to end things anyway."

"Thanks for that vote of confidence."

"I already told you whose side I'm on," Chance said easily. "And it's not yours."

"Thanks for that."

Chance just smirked as he started the car. "See you around, Ger," he said, then drove off toward town to find his sisters something nice.

He knew that they were messing with him about wanting to remind him that there were other important girls in his life besides Elin, but he really did want to show them that he wasn't going to forget about them, either, so he'd taken the teasing to heart and wound up at a cute little shop that sold accessories — purses, scarves, jewelry, that sort of thing.

The two women running the shop were smiling and sweet and more than willing to offer their help — since, in cowboy boots and jeans, he didn't exactly look like he belonged — but Chance knew what his sisters liked. Or at least, he knew their favorite colors and more or less what they wore — and thankfully, the store was arranged by color. Which was really helpful.

He ended up getting both of them new earrings and got a cute necklace for Elin just because he could and because he was too excited about getting to _marry_ her to refrain from spoiling her absolutely rotten.

He was in a good mood as he headed back to his car, though he didn't quite reach it before a group of kids — mostly teenagers, though some were in their twenties — headed his way. They were all wearing purple shirts, though it was a dark, almost maroon purple, and Chance could see from the way they were holding their hands close to their waists that a few of them were carrying.

Chance let out a breath when he saw it but reached for his own guns all the same even as he said, "I don't know who you guys are, but I don't want a fight."

But rather than answering or trying to talk to him at all — even to sneer about it — the group of kids simply rushed toward Chance.

Chance didn't hesitate to pull out both guns — set on stun — and simply started to shoot through the group of them. There were a couple dozen, but Chance was a fast shot, and when the first teenager took a pot shot his way, he slid over the hood of the nearest car and ducked down behind it before he rolled and shot at their feet from under the car.

He kept going with the momentum and popped back to his feet to blast through another couple, knocking them down and out until there were really only a handful left. Which was really more than easy enough for Chance to deal with if it hadn't been for the sudden squealing of tires that he heard behind him, and he only barely got out of the way of the car headed his way.

He rolled with the momentum of his jump, but even then, he'd lost some serious ground with the car showing up. He popped back up to his feet again, but before he could run too much further, one of the kids managed to graze his shoulder with a shot that was just too close for comfort, and when he turned to face them, a few more kids in purple shirts rushed out of the still-running car with guns raised.

And even cruddy shots would be able to gun him down for as surrounded as he was, so Chance quickly raised his hands in a gesture of surrender.

"Drop the guns," one of the kids called out. "You don't get to hurt any more mutants."

Chance stared at the kid, his mouth partially open. "What are you—"

"Drop 'em. Now."

Chance let the guns clatter to the ground, and one of the young men scooped them up to point his way, though Chance knew that wouldn't work and kept track of the guy. If he could get less surrounded, that was a weak spot he could use.

Chance kept his hands raised at eye level as the group moved in closer, though as soon as they moved to yank his arms behind him, he took the opportunity to throw one of them over his shoulder, darting past the guy holding his guns.

He heard the click as the guy tried to shoot at Chance with the DNA coded guns and smirked to himself as he poured on the speed. He was almost to his car, too, before a straight up lucky shot managed to tag him in the back of the leg, and the group was easily able to catch up with him after that.

Chance winced as someone put a boot in between his shoulder blades, and gasped when someone else stepped on his leg until he let out a scream. The guy practically standing on him jerked his arms back to tie them, and someone else bound his ankles together.

They started to drag him off unceremoniously, shoving him into the back of the car that had nearly run him over, with a guy in purple on either side of him holding a shoulder apiece to keep him from trying anything else. But Chance was starting to slow down anyway just from the shot. And at this point, the best thing he could do, he had already done: the panic button would have relayed the coordinates of the attack as soon as he fired his guns. Though seeing as those guns were on the ground now, whichever teleporter responded would have to do a little detective work from there.

So… stalling seemed the appropriate tactic here.

"What's with the wannabe Hawkeye look, guys?" Chance asked in as conversational a tone as he could manage.

One of the guys, the one on his left, snorted derisively. "Shows what you know," he said. "We are the next Brotherhood. But worldwide. A movement that can't be stopped."

"Wow, okay, you swallowed the pamphlet, didn't you?"

"You have no idea—"

"Yeah, yeah, got that part," Chance said easily. He straightened up a bit and tipped his head to the side. "So are you recruiting? Because this seems like a crummy way to do it."

"Like we'd want you, human," the driver sneered.

"Like I'd want to join," Chance countered.

The guy to his right glared at him for a moment and then reached over to hit him in the head with the butt of his gun, leaving Chance seeing stars for a long while.

Eventually, the car came to a stop, and more purple-shirted thugs came to drag Chance to what looked like a big church building. It looked like whatever was going on, there was some real mob mentality — with plenty of people and excitement and shouting as they approached the building through the back way. Already, Chance could hear someone whipping the crowd up into a frenzy, going on and on about how mutantkind was done taking humanity's abuse.

"They tried to stop us, tried to kill us all off, but here we are!" The voice echoed through the whole building, obviously amplified, as Chance noted the purple-maroon decorations, all of them displaying a logo with an 'S' curled around the long side of an 'R.' "And now, the world belongs to us!"

There was the roar of approval from the crowd, louder than anything yet as the guys on either side of Chance came backstage, waiting for the crowd to reach a sort of fevered pitch. Chance was pretty sure he knew what he was in for, and that was only confirmed when they all but tossed him onto the stage beside the man standing in the center working the mob. Chance couldn't stand up, not with his ankles tied and his leg still a mess, but he wasn't going to just lie there either, and he wriggled until he was at least on his knees with a solid glare.

"It's bad enough they want to destroy us, but they're even trying to replace us!" The man glared down at Chance as he spoke before he simply backhanded Chance hard enough to knock him sideways and sprawling. "This one thinks he can be an X-Man, but that belongs to _us_."

Chance shook his head and spit blood before he turned to glare up at the guy. "I'd like to see you try and get on the team," he snapped back, though he didn't get to say anything else before the guy kicked him in the stomach and had him curling in on himself protectively.

The guy sneered at Chance and then looked up at the cameras and crowd. "Why don't we show the world what happens when humans don't know their place?" he asked, gesturing grandly as the crowd screamed its approval.

Chance ducked his head and tried to curl in, though he couldn't stop the scream when the guy stomped on his still-bleeding leg. The crowd roared its approval again, and Chance could hear all sorts of chants about what the guy should do to him — about half of them including his demise. The biggest and most pervasive chant was "Superior Rising," which must have been the name of this near-cult — not that Chance was too focused on that when the guy in the middle of the stage pulled a gun.

For one panicked moment, Chance wondered if this man was going to shoot him down in cold blood in front of all of these witnesses, but when he did shoot, there was pain, yeah, but he wasn't dead.

Chance braced himself for a moment and then looked down to see a bright purple tag sticking out of his chest. He could still breathe okay, so he figured his lungs had been spared, but his chest hurt like crazy.

"They marked us, tagged us like cattle," the man shouted to the crowd. "How do you like it?"

The crowd screamed some more as Chance struggled to his knees again, determined not to take this lying down. He turned toward the guy in charge and bared his teeth. "If you knew anything at all, you'd know the X-Men fight exactly this kind of thing," Chance spat out. "I fight—"

"You are _not_ an X-Man," the guy said sharply, reaching down to grab the fabric of Chance's shirt to haul him up. "You're _nothing_ , do you hear me?"

Chance met his gaze evenly. "I _am_ an X-Man," he said. "Deal with it."

"Oh, we will," the guy said with a malicious smile before he let go of Chance and let the young man crumple, signalling to someone offstage.

Two men rushed forward to grab hold of Chance to hold him down, and Chance, for his part, quickly realized that whatever was coming, he was not going along with it easily. He twisted and wriggled to try and get loose, but they held him down fast, and another man came out to hand something to the man on the stage.

"Let the world know," the man shouted. "The age of humanity is over. Any filthy humans who forget their places will have us to answer to, and they will bear the marks of their inferiority."

Chance was panicking solidly by the time he saw the red glowing 'H' in the man's hand, though he could hear the low and satisfied whisper as the guy leaned in. "You've been riding on some big coattails for too long. Don't want history getting confused on who the one worth a damn was."

* * *

When the beacon went off with Chance calling for assistance, it took no time at all for Jubilee to pinpoint where he was supposed to be if they followed the beacon. Kurt and Logan went in as the first wave to see how bad it was — along with half a dozen bamfs all growling and ready to fight. But by the time they got there, the only thing around was the discarded weapons — and at the far end of the lot, a car had just peeled out onto the road as they'd appeared.

Kurt and Logan shared a look, and a moment later, the bamfs were tailing them while Logan called James to get a peek into the surveillance cameras nearby. The car could very well be a dead end, and even as they scouted the area, there were at least two other cars that were doing the same thing — peeling out onto the damp roadway. Of course, that really just had both of the older X-Men grumbling about stupid teenagers.

When Logan found the guns, he picked one up gingerly and gave it a little sniff, growling to himself before he hit his comm. "Someone else had his guns," he said to Scott on the other side. "When James gets a lead, we'll send a bamf." As he was talking, he was already trying to follow the meager scent trail to at least get a direction on which way to go.

"Any idea who it was this time?"

"I don't think it was Sinister, if that's what you're asking," Logan said. "No Marauder stink anywhere."

"If it was Sinister, he would be dead," Scott said.

"Not if he was baiting for one of the others," Logan replied. "Or you."

"What about Hydra?" Scott asked. "They still run the trafficking rings."

There was a little pause as Logan thought it over. "There's a little boost in a few of the scents, but the bigger problem is the large amounts of cheap body spray."

"You think it was kids?"

"If it isn't, then someone's goin' through a nasty midlife crisis."

"Alright. I'll meet you there when James gets something solid," Scott replied.

"And if we find him first, we'll letcha know." Logan turned to Kurt once he'd run out of trail — though the close proximity to the strip mall wasn't really helping with the overload of colognes. "This crap is as bad as pepper spray."

Kurt shook his head at Logan, and after a quick teleport to him, one of the little bamfs appeared a few cars over and then made his way to the two of them, chattering incessantly and gesturing wildly. Kurt frowned, sent one of the others to Scott, and then grabbed Logan's arm. "Our young Summers needs help."

When they reappeared, it was in a backstage area, where the rally was still going strong and the little bamf was chattering up a storm and pointing to where Chance was laid out and half beaten to hell.

One of the teenagers in the crowd turned at the arrival of the X-Men and actually broke into an excited sort of grin. "No way!"

When the kid got even halfway close, Logan didn't even think about it before he flattened the guy and kept stalking right for Chance with a bamf on his shoulder who had been nervous about getting too close. The purple cloaked idiots on stage all looked _excited_ as Logan neared, but the first one that tried to block his view from Chance ended up with a broken nose and laid out cold before Logan walked right over the top of him, even stepping on the side of the guy's face with a little twist of his ankle as he put his full weight on him. The bamf on his shoulder covered his mouth as he giggled at the muted crack of something breaking underfoot, though Logan didn't react at all.

The display seemed to be enough to get them to back off as Logan knelt down next to Chance and took a solid assessment to address the worst of his injuries on the spot, though not before Scott arrived himself to see the state of things.

It took Scott all of five seconds flat to see what was going on and then to immediately blast everyone on the stage close to Chance — as many as he could without hitting Chance and Logan too.

"Hey, the whole 'chicks dig scars' thing is a lie, kiddo," Logan told Chance as he cut him loose from how he was restrained. "You're tryin' too hard."

"Thanks for the tip," Chance muttered tiredly.

"Can you stand?"

"Uh, yeah, but not walking," he admitted.

"Lucky for you we got a better method of travel tonight," Logan told him before he hoisted the kid upright. Chance swayed, but Logan situated him quickly enough. He was sure to stand on Chance's injured side so he could balance better as he looked over to Scott and Kurt. "Go ahead and lean on me," Logan said quietly a moment before the first idiot raised a weapon near the two of them. Logan quickly met his gaze and let out a low and rippling snarl — which was more than enough to get the guy to drop his weapon in surprise.

The roar of the crowd had dimmed to almost nothing as Scott strode over to where Chance and Logan were to look Chance over for himself. And he only got madder the more he saw. "You okay?"

Chance nodded. "Can't go too long without someone taking exception to my face. Might get boring."

Scott nodded, though his gaze was almost locked onto the bright red 'H' on his son's cheek, and Chance and Logan both could see the change when Scott turned toward the crowd of people gathered there.

"You think this makes you better?" Scott snapped out, his gaze still slightly red with anger. "This makes you the same as everyone who ever put us down, who tried to kill and humiliate mutantkind. This makes you _worse_ than the people — humans and mutants and everything in between — this makes you worse than them. It makes you exactly what the world always said we were." He glared at the group of kids for a long time. "This is your only warning. The X-Men do not tolerate hate groups. Period."

"Hey, Slim," Logan said gently. "We gotta get the kid outta here."

Scott paused for a moment until the red glow pulled back. "Right," he said at last but didn't move until Kurt put a hand on his shoulder, and the whole group teleported out.


	12. Chance Can't Stay Out Of Trouble

As soon as they had their feet on solid ground, Logan and Scott picked up Chance between the two of them and got him over to Hank to get the exam and first aid started. Hank dove in fast and began muttering to himself as he found one injury piled on top of another, though he wasn't entirely done when one of the bamfs reappeared in the lab with Elin, who couldn't help but frown at the scene.

Both her father and Scott were still livid, though for once, it looked like Logan was trying to talk Scott off of the edge instead of the other way around. And Chance … one hand went to Elin's mouth when she saw how battered he was, even though Hank was already cleaning him up. Without a word spoken, she slipped around their fathers and started helping Hank, biting her lip as she cleaned up his face enough to give him a little kiss on the forehead.

It wasn't until he was cleaned up enough for Hank to start prepping to bring him in to surgery to deal with the bullet wound and the tag that she finally gave him an exceedingly careful kiss. "My sweet Summers."

Chance couldn't help but smile at her. "Sorry I keep getting into trouble," he said.

"I'm just going to have to go with you," she said, returning the smile.

"Oh no. Spending time with my future wife? How horrible."

"Taxing, I'm sure," she said, wide-eyed as she nodded.

Chance nodded with a crooked sort of smile and then kissed her cheek. "Love you, El."

"Love you too," she said, brushing his hair back. "I'll be here when you wake up. Try not to start a fight with Dr. Blue, okay?"

"Okay, I guess," he said in a tone that clearly said this was an imposition. "Oh. Hey - how did James' test go?"

"I'll tell you about it later," she promised with a laugh. "When I pin you just to cheer you up."

"Oh, with promises like that…"

She gave him a crooked smile and put the mask on him for Hank. "Go ahead and tell me what you think of me ... "

"The most amazing…" But Chance didn't get much further than that before he was out.

"And now we'll never know," Elin sang out as Hank chuckled. She looked more serious as she gave Hank a quick kiss on the cheek and then went back to where Scott and Logan were with her arms crossed. "Who did it?"

"New group," Scott said with a serious glare.

"Personal vendetta?" she asked.

"Yes and no," Scott said. "Seems like they have it out for humans in general, and they have a twisted view of the X-Men."

She nodded to herself and narrowed her eyes. "So how do we fix that? Increase the public outreach?"

"Yes, and make it clear the X-Men stand with humanity as well as mutantkind. Put Kate out there more as well as Chance."

"I thought that was clear," Elin said, frowning. "Never once has the team said anything about being better …"

"We had always been solely focused on mutants for a long, long time," Scott said. "The history can be skewed the wrong way. MY history too."

She weighed it out and nodded slowly. "I'll … okay. I think … maybe I can get James to put something out to the established X-Men friendly websites. Make sure they have the right basic outline of Xavier's speeches. See if we can work up some clarification on what the team name actually means."

"And it wouldn't hurt to throw in something about what Erik did for the team in his later years. If they want to use him… and me… as a life model…" Scott looked more frustrated as he ran a hand through his hair.

She bit her lip and watched him. "I think … Annie might have some video of Erik we might be able to cherry pick through. Backing Xavier's words." She closed her eyes. "It was one of the tea times."

"Good."

"The boy'll check 'em out first. Make sure they are who they say they are," Logan added. "Don't give anything to anyone without vettin' 'em."

"David in Chicago is your best bet to start," Scott pointed out.

"James knows him better," Elin said. "So I'll make sure he's there to translate. If that's alright."

"Makes sense to me," Scott said, then squeezed her shoulder. "Thanks, Elin," he added. "How was Chance?"

"He's in surgery with Hank," she told him. "Probably going to be a while."

"I'll talk to Annie, let her know what happened and what we need."

"I _know_ she has stuff with Erik and Chance," Elin said. "If these people are under the impression they'd do what Erik would … I want to shove it in their face on how wrong they are."

"Make them face reality," Scott agreed in a fierce tone.

"Oh, that too," she growled back in agreement before she headed up to find James and get to work. She barely finished briefing James on what was going on before Logan stepped up behind her and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Got a little recon to do," he said quietly, not really looking at either of them. "Chance won't be up for a few hours anyhow …"

"Yes, please. I'm going with you," she said, and before they hit the end of the hall, James was right there with them.

"Got it on autopilot. I already sent out what David needs. Now, the program is digging into personnel files and background checks on the people that operate the others — including that little fangirl Chance told me about." James fell into step with them, and after that, they quietly made their way to the hangar, though Elin was sure to grab the spare keys to Chance's car, deciding that he didn't need to deal with that too.

"Looks like you're makin' a land speed record for first mission after joining," Logan said to James with a muted sort of smirk that James returned.

"I'll sleep it off later," James agreed, which had Logan shaking his head at how much he was already taking after him.

From there, it was really just a matter of asking a few questions _the right way_ of the right purple-clad creeps and checking the stage to find the right scent before the three Howletts headed out to hunt — each splitting off in different directions.

Logan of course took off after the guy running the show, who had been doing most of the big damage and working the crowd up into a frenzy, while James dug up the guy that had decided that Chance was going to be the perfect 'example'.

And while James got into the guy's computer to trace back all the more 'serious' contacts and correspondence, Elin dragged the guy into his own basement by his nose.

She only had a handful of questions. "Have you ever been an X-Man?" for starters, since James had handed her a transcript of what had gone down, which of course was answered with a 'no'. And then "Why Chance?"

But when the guys' response was, "He doesn't deserve what he's got," James let out a low whistle and walked out of the room while Elin tore into the guy with every single nasty trick K had taught her. She didn't kill him, but when she finally left, he sure wished he was dead.

"This guy was the brains — how's the 'face' doing?" James asked over the comm, though it took a moment for Logan to respond.

"He's not lookin' too good right now," he said. "Give me ten minutes … no. Make it fifteen."

James and Elin shared a look, then shook their heads, knowing this guy was in for it if their father wanted _another_ fifteen minutes. "Alright, Dad. This one's ready for you when you're done," Elin said as she watched the 'brains' of the operation sniveling on the floor.

When the two teenagers left half an hour later with their father, they weren't surprised at all to find that Chance's car had, of course, been vandalized by the idiots — likely after the senior team guys had pulled Chance out of the theater. "I've got it," Elin said, though Logan slipped into the passenger seat with her after checking the car out for bombs or cut brake lines.

"If it's all the same to you, I'll ride with you," he told her as James headed out to deal with the jet. When they were headed down the road, Logan turned her way. "This group ain't gonna go down easy. They're not centralized. Not really."

"So … it's going to be a forever kind of problem," she said with a sigh. "That's just … great."

He didn't correct her, or even consider doing so, since he wasn't exactly optimistic about how it was going to end. But before there was much more to be said, the comm sparked up with Kurt letting them know that Chance was awake.

Logan gave Elin a little squeeze as he headed down with her, though when they got there, Chance wasn't alone. Annie and Scott were right there with him, and Elin had to let out a little laugh when she saw the look on his face. He'd clearly been teasing his dad with his mom backing him up, so he had to be feeling good.

"Sorry I'm late," she said when they walked in the door. "We got your car back for you."

"You were late because of a car?" Chance teased with a small smirk.

She shrugged lightly. "Technically, yes."

Chance just shook his head at that and smiled at her, though his gaze roamed from her to Logan, and he almost grimaced. "Guess I'm bad at staying out of trouble."

Logan shook his head at that. "I saw the tapes. Wasn't anything you could have done to avoid it."

"I've got new guns in the works," James said. "They'll taser the living crap out of anyone that tries to use them but you."

"There wasn't a thing wrong with the first ones," Chance argued. "And I liked having Dad and Elin on them."

"They can still be keyed into them," James said with a frown. "What? You think I can't do both? Unauthorized morons get the juice."

Chance nodded. "Okay, yeah, thanks," he said, leaning back a bit.

"He's gotta take care of his teammates," Elin said with a little smirk.

At that, Chance sat up straighter and broke into a huge grin. "No kidding?" he asked. "That's amazing! I knew you'd pull it off."

"Well l, that's you and your optimism at work," James said.

"Genetic," Chance said easily.

"We _all_ knew you'd do it," Annie said with a warm smile.

"Yeah … that's really not important right now," James said quietly. "We have an idiot infestation."

"We can't celebrate and go on the warpath at the same time?" Annie asked, blinking at him as if he was speaking a foreign language.

"We … already did that," Elin admitted.

Scott raised an eyebrow as he looked between the three of them, though he shocked Annie when his question was, "Without me?"

"If … you really wanna fight, I didn't get to do anything either," James said with a smirk his way. "I can say dumb things and shake my fist at you … wear purple ..."

"That's not the same," Scott said, though he couldn't help but smirk James' way for a moment before he gave Logan an expectant look. "What do you know?"

"I know the guy that did most of the damage isn't gonna be talking or getting in front of any cameras any time ever," Logan said before he tipped his chin toward his kids. "They started on the brains to work over. Don't know what they did before I got there to finish, but whatsisface learned that branding isn't fun."

Scott looked between the three of them for a long moment. "And…"

"And … he specifically picked Chance. It sounded like a jealousy issue," Elin said.

James had his hands in his pockets when he realized Scott was still expecting more. "Oh, I put a little zombie virus in their server. It'll send everything they say or do to a laptop in the War Room."

Scott smirked at that and nodded. "Alright. We'll keep an eye on this," he said. "I can't say I'm surprised to see groups like this crop up again, but this is more like the Church of Humanity than the Brotherhood ever was."

"And the guy running things didn't really sound like they were happy with how that ended," Elin admitted. "They're probably going to try again."

"That also doesn't surprise me," Scott said darkly.

"Let 'em," Chance muttered.

Elin turned his way with a raised eyebrow.

"Let 'em come," Chance said, this time a little louder. "I mean, if they want their trash kicked that badly, I say we oblige."

"How about you get yourself healed up first," Elin said.

"Point," Chance admitted, tipping his head to Elin before he leaned back.

"If it helps, I can be friendly with that girl," Elin told him with a smirk. "I have thoughts."

"Yes, because what I really want right now is for my fiance to find someone cuter than me," Chance teased lightly.

"I doubt that would be the outcome," she said before she gave him a quick kiss. "But a semi-public shoot down of what they're pushing might be good. All I'd have to do is just … go out for coffee alone, I think."

"You'd be mobbed with people asking if you'd dumped me," he said with a smirk.

"It'll _never_ happen," she almost purred out.

"Oh good, because I was planning on marrying you, and that would really suck if it didn't happen," Chance said with a smile.

"That might not be a bad idea," James agreed, though he was working on his phone. "Go and allow someone to talk to you. But you're not going alone."

"It would work with you or with Krissy or Sying," Chance pointed out. "I mean, best friend… nephew… brother…"

"In order of his preference," James said under his breath before he handed his phone to Elin. "That her?"

She frowned and nodded before she handed it back. "Is she awful?"

"Looks like she's just _excitable_ ," James replied.

"Then I better take you," Elin said. "She'll freak out the Elfling. Sying … won't know if he should keep up or hit her."

"And you know I'll just want to hit her," James said, nodding.

"You … are exceptionally good at dealing with overenthusiastic types," she argued, and at that, James just tipped his head back and stared at the ceiling.

"Welcome to the team," Chance said, entertained with the idea of getting to play with James again. Finally.

"Yeah … real hard so far. Beat up people that need it and investigate college girls. This had to be what Vanessa was giggling about."

Chance smirked at Elin and leaned over to whisper in her ear. "Future sister-in-law..."

"He won't even argue it," she whispered back.

"Not even a little," Chance agreed, though he had moved on to just resting his head on her shoulder by that point — since he was there anyway.

Logan tapped Scott on the shoulder and gave James a look that clearly read they had much better places to be — and it was pretty obvious that he wanted to know who this girl was they were talking about before any plans were made. But that really just left Chance and Elin more or less alone, since Annie wasn't about to interrupt the two of them when they were so clearly set to curl up already.

Chance couldn't help but smirk when he saw the room clear out and then pulled on Elin until she was sharing the bed with him so he could properly curl into her.

"I don't want to hurt you, mister," she said, though she didn't fight him pulling her in.

"Then don't pin me and we'll be fine," he said, sliding his arms around her so he could nestle in.

"I didn't even get the full list of the crap they pulled," she told him before she kissed his nose.

He shrugged lightly. "Don't really need the rundown, El," he told her.

"What if I want it?" she asked seriously. "If the shoe was on the other foot …"

"Yeah…" He looked up at her for a second and then rested his head back on her shoulder. "Dunno what more there is to tell you. I mean, they shot me with a bullet _and_ a tag and decorated my face. The rest was just… kicking and screaming."

She rested her chin on top of his head for just a moment. "Then maybe I went a little overboard. If it was _just_ kicking and screaming."

He couldn't help but smirk at her. "Yeah, no, you were defending my good name and all that," he said with a light tone.

"Dad got the guy with the branding iron," she told him quietly. "He said making words with one letter is hard — but not impossible."

"Well, that one if you turn it sideways…" Chance said, though his eyes were a bit wide.

"I'd imagine he probably cut parts off of it," she said, shaking her head.

"Yeah." Chance rested his forehead against her jaw for a moment before he let out a breath. "I'm … not going to get rid of it," he said slowly.

"I'll consider it your attempt at becoming a Howlett," she said without missing a beat. "Over the top, but …"

He couldn't help but let out a little snort of a laugh. "Not what I was going for," he said. "I was thinking more that … well. So what if I'm human?" He tipped his chin up a bit. "I want them to see my face every time I go out with the team and know I'm still an X-Man."

She nodded slowly to herself. "Your call, your face."

"You have to deal with that face forever once you say 'I do'; you get a say too."

"I'm not marrying you for your looks," she replied.

"Good, because considering who I take after, that would be weird," Chance said with a smirk.

"Should I worry, then?" she countered.

Chance snorted. "I definitely think you're beautiful, but that's not the only reason I'm marrying you."

"You just keep leading with my looks … I should point out ... " she gestured to her face. "Mom."

"I also make it a point to tell you how scary you are," he said, the smirk widening.

"You have weird priorities," Elin said.

"Yeah, maybe." Chance snuggled into her a bit more and was quiet for a long time before he spoke up again. "They're not the only ones coming after me, you know."

She reached up to put her hand over his mouth. "Don't start."

But he shook his head and gently pulled her hand away. "I'm serious. If it's not them, it's Sinister."

"And the weapons programs after us, and all of Dad's old enemies … there's always someone."

"Exactly." Chance picked his head up to look at her directly. "El… you know I want to tell the world I love you, but the world isn't exactly happy about you or me — or you _and_ me."

"They'll figure it out when I introduce myself anyhow," she pointed out.

"Yeah," he said. "But I just meant …" He let out a breath. "I've heard the stories about your parents' wedding — and the first one that didn't happen. I'd rather not have any wedding crashers if that's at all possible," he explained.

"Wait, you're talking about wedding stuff?" she said with her nose scrunched up.

"Well, yeah," he said.

"Are you asking me to be your dirty little secret?" she asked with a teasing little smile.

Chance snorted out a little laugh. "No," he swore. "Nothing like that. But I am saying we probably can't have the big blowout invite-the-whole-world my mom wants."

"Ah, well, you were the one that wanted the big blow out," she pointed out. "That's never been on the radar for me or my family."

"Yeah, well, Hale." Chance smiled ruefully up at her. "But I think a nice private wedding, just our families… I could do that too."

"Chance," Elin said quietly. "I told you — that's all on you. I just want a little bouquet, but if that's a problem, we can ditch that too." She kissed his forehead again. "We're not very big on the whole 'spotlight' thing, you know."

"I know," he said. "And you _are_ getting sunflowers and roses," he added. "I haven't forgotten."

"I'm fine with just eloping if its a hassle otherwise," she replied.

"Um, I thought you wanted a _live_ husband," he said. "My mother. Would. Kill. Me."

"Oh, she wouldn't do that," Elin said with a little laugh. "You're being dramatic."

"I'm not," he assured her, though he was smiling at her. "And besides, it wouldn't be the same without Kurt doing the ceremony and without you pegging 'Nessa with the flowers… or I could get James with the garter…"

"You just want to get dressed up," she accused.

"And show off my new bride, yeah," he said without missing a beat.

"Well … alright. But the alternative would be getting married in uniform," she teased.

"Yeah, no, I wanna see the dress," he shot back with an impish smile.

"Okay," she said before she scooted down and kissed him properly.

He grinned into the kiss, and when it broke, he looked a lot less serious as he said in an almost offhand tone, "Oh, did I mention Gerry wanted me to kill him today?"

"Over what? Did he finally ask Charlie out?" she asked.

"No, he wanted to ask me if it was alright," Chance said. "I told him to get serious first. Charlie knows he's not interested."

"She likes him too, you know," she said. "He's pretty funny with a crush. Blushing at all the right times."

Chance sat up a little straighter and narrowed his eyes. "Okay. You and Charlie can't both be right about this. And she insists he's not interested."

She met his gaze with a serious look of her own. "Without screwing with your head too much? The nose doesn't lie, okay?"

"Neither does Charlie."

She shrugged. "Then she's never had someone care for her like _that_. I think it's just been comfortable and easy and … she might not see what it is."

Chance tipped his head to the side as he frowned at Elin. "Huh," he said at last. "I'm not sure how I feel about that, to be honest."

"Which part?" Elin asked, settling in with her head on his shoulder. "The part where they are both crushing, or the part where I can reliably tell you I know things? Many, many things."

He chuckled and shook his head. "No, the part where my sister and _Gerry_. I mean…"

"Oh _no_ , Gerry Drew! What a nightmare!"

"Come on, El. He's never been _serious_ about anyone before," Chance pointed out.

"Hmm," she said quietly. "So … that means he can't be?"

"No, but can you blame a guy for not wanting his sister to be a trial period?"

"Are you sure you want to ask _me_ that question?"

"Hey," Chance said. "I already swore on everything I could swear on to your dad _and_ James that I'd be true to you. Not the same."

"Alright," she said with a little shrug. "But that's a lot of pot-kettle nonsense."

He shook his head to himself. "Anyway, it's out of my hands now," he said. "I told him he has to prove to Charlie he likes her first. So…"

"Would you have told him that if you'd known that she likes him?" she asked.

Chance shrugged. "I know she's interested," he said. "She's my twin sister. I knew when she was interested in Sying, too. Not like it's hard with the poker face she's got."

"So it's her call anyhow," she said. "Don't worry about it too much."

"You remember who my dad is, right?" Chance teased her, though he leaned up to steal a kiss as well.


	13. What Vanessa Saw

Charlie wasn't happy in the least about the changes to all of the wedding planning that she had been doing. She had all these ideas about a big wedding with reds and sunflowers in all the decorations, and Chance was dead set on it just being parents, siblings, and grandparents.

She _understood_ the reasoning behind it. It was hard not to when her idiot of a brother had decided to wear an 'H' on his face like some kind of sick badge of… stupid bravery or something. She _knew_ that he and Elin were going to get a lot of pushback. She did.

She just had such high hopes for them, because it had taken them both _so long_ to get to this point, and she wanted the wedding of the century for her brother. She wanted something to go _right_ for him. And this… this small wedding felt like defeat. Like he couldn't even have the big party he wanted because people were idiots.

"Back to the wedding planning again?" Gerry asked as he came to sit down next to her. It was the first day of classes after everything that had gone down with Chance, so it was the first time he'd seen her at the Round Two wedding planning stage.

"They're _downsizing_ ," Charlie said in a clearly disappointed tone. "Family only. Immediate family."

"And you're missing out on the big bash," Gerry said with a nod. "How dare they."

Charlie couldn't help but roll her eyes at him and reached over to shove him in the shoulder. "It's not really their fault," she said, because she wasn't going to leave her brother out to dry that badly. "It's just that people are idiots and might try to screw this up for them."

"Yeah, I heard about Stupidity Rising," Gerry said, nodding seriously.

Charlie blinked at him for a moment and then couldn't help but laugh out loud. "I'm calling them that from now on, I'll have you know."

Gerry grinned at her as he handed her some of the snacks he'd snagged and leaned back in his seat, seeming to study her. She could hear the uptick in nervousness coming from him but didn't think anything of it until he said, "You wanna go out with me?"

Charlie's head came up fast, and she blinked at him a few times, sure that she'd heard wrong. "What?"

"Do you want to go out. With me?" Gerry repeated, a bit slower this time and holding her gaze steadily.

Charlie's lips parted, and she couldn't help but reach out to what he was feeling — nervousness, obviously, but honest sincerity as well. "When did… for fun or…?"

"Well, I'd like to think all dates with me are fun," he said with a little smile. "But I meant… like a _date_."

It was another long moment before Charlie answered again, because she simply couldn't believe what she was hearing. She and Gerry had been around each other for _years_ , and she had never heard a frenetic crush melody from him. Not directed her way, that is. But when she reached out a little deeper, she could find something else. It was a lot like the song Clint had around Natasha. Not a crush — it was deeper. Caring. _More_ than a frenetic excitement.

It set her back a step and left her in stunned silence as she looked up to meet Gerry's gaze. "Oh," she said quietly, surprised into a smile his way. "Yes. Yes, that would be nice."

Gerry broke into a smile when he heard it. "Great!" he said as he got up from his seat. "So, I'll pick you up tonight?"

"You mean you'll walk all the way down the hall to come find me?" she teased.

"Yes, that," he said with a little nod.

"Then yes, I think that would be lovely," Charlie agreed, taking his offered hand as they headed back to his car to drive back home.

And now that Charlie knew to look for it, she could sense the much deeper feelings coming from Gerry, feelings that she absolutely hadn't noticed before. She couldn't fathom why that would be the case… she had never missed emotions before.

And it wasn't like she could blame it on her own feelings. She'd had crushes on people who didn't like her back before and absolutely knew the difference. She'd known when people liked her and when they didn't.

And Gerry hadn't liked her. He _hadn't_.

It must have shifted sometime, and she didn't even know when. For as long as she had known him, he'd never had that sort of frenetic crush melody for _her_. He'd never been interested. He had cared, yes, obviously, but that… that had always been more of a mark of their friendship than anything else. It certainly had never been about anything more than that.

And Charlie had accepted that. She knew there was nothing she could do to change people's emotions — and there was nothing she _would_ do even if she had that power, because she didn't want to manipulate anyone into anything. It hadn't changed the fact that she had certainly _liked_ Gerry. She liked his kindness and his optimism. She liked his smile. She liked that he couldn't go five minutes without telling a joke or trying to cheer someone up….

"You're pretty quiet," Gerry said, breaking into her thoughts, and she couldn't help but smile nervously back at him.

"I didn't think you were interested," she admitted.

"Yeah. Well… I am," Gerry said with a sheepish sort of smile. "Are you?"

"Of course. That's why I said yes," Charlie pointed out.

Gerry's smile got that much wider before he turned his attention back to the road, though Charlie couldn't help but smile when she felt the wave of happiness and excitement coming off of him.

This was going to be a great date; she was sure of it.

* * *

Vanessa had been curled up with James in one of the more secluded spots in the mansion. They were really only watching a movie, though Vanessa had been very distracted, and not how she usually was distracted. She was once again rolling her pearl between her fingers slowly with an almost vacant expression that James didn't see since she was resting with her head on his shoulder. Then, very suddenly ,she sprang to her feet and darted out of the room without any explanation at all.

She spotted Gerry and Charlie walking hand-in-hand toward the garage, and she did the first thing that came to mind: flat out running to tackle Gerry.

"What the heck?" Gerry blurted out, scrambling to disentangle himself, since both he and Charlie had gone down when Vanessa hit them.

"You _can't_ go out right now," Vanessa insisted, her eyes wide and serious.

"What are you talking about?" Charlie asked as Gerry helped her to her feet.

"You can't … you _can't_ leave right now. It's not okay — and I won't let you." She drew herself up, though she was anything but intimidating.

"Woah, hey, no one wants a fight here," Gerry said with both hands raised.

"I saw you getting picked apart," she said, looking incredibly distressed.

Charlie's eyes widened, and she covered her mouth with one hand, but Gerry just nodded slowly. "Okay, that's bad," he had to agree.

"If you want a date night, take over where James and I have been hiding. No one will bother you."

Charlie and Gerry glanced at each other, both of them with matching frowns as they considered the problem. "We… could always just stay in," Gerry offered at last. "Not like some of the other couples haven't had to do that before."

But Charlie was locked onto Vanessa with a distinct frown. "What … do you know who it was?" she asked in a tone that clearly said she already suspected the answer.

Vanessa shook her head with a frown. "I can't _see_ this person right. I'd say it was blurry, but it doesn't … I don't _do_ blurry," she insisted. "It's more like when an old piece of film had two pictures on it?" She held Charlie's gaze as she demonstrated with her hands — covering one with the other. "So it isn't coming through right — and it makes no sense."

"It makes sense to me," Charlie said, her tone one that she simply didn't use very often, almost angry and dangerous.

"I've seen this person before ... and they've been obsessing over Gerry … it's been him that they've been after," Vanessa explained. "But until now — _just now_ — the pictures always drifted off."

"Why would Sinister be after _Gerry_?" Charlie asked.

But Vanessa shook her head. "I don't know. I can't see _why_ things happen, just that they do." She reached up to hold the pearl again, biting her lip and slowly shaking her head. "Nothing is changing yet. You can't go. I think they're waiting."

"You'd think you'd relate," Gerry told Charlie with a little smirk, and she rolled her eyes at him.

"We won't go anywhere," Charlie assured Vanessa. "In fact, if you like, we can make it a double date so you can keep an eye on things. I think we'd all feel better when your vision passes."

Vanessa let out a relieved breath and nodded her head, though the stress was still apparent around her eyes. "I'm sure James would be alright with that. He's been so isolated lately."

"We … thought he wanted some privacy with you," Gerry pointed out.

Vanessa shook her head slowly. "We have all day, all the time," she said.

"Well, he's one of my best friends," Charlie said. "I don't mind double dating with him at all, I promise."

Vanessa gave her a little smile that was considerably brighter than before. "Good! He needs it."

Charlie matched Vanessa's smile and then stepped forward to wrap her up in a hug. "Thanks," she whispered into the hug. "For watching out for us."

"It works a lot better if I'm on friendly terms with the people in the visions," she whispered back just as quietly.

Charlie smiled. "Love you too."

Vanessa gave her a squeeze back and then led the way to the kitchen. "We should bring some snacks … oh." She looked shocked at herself for a moment. "I … didn't tell James what was happening."

"I'm sure he'll be okay with you running out on him to save my life," Gerry said with a smile.

She blushed deeply and turned to gather up a few things. "I just … tackled you."

"Hey, speaking as someone who has been on both sides of the test subject experience… believe me, I'm more than happy to be tackled to avoid getting taken apart," Gerry told her honestly.

She shook her head and pushed the bowl of popcorn into his hands. "I hope action flicks are okay with you two."

"Sounds fine to me," Gerry assured her.

* * *

Essex was more than a little frustrated that the boy hadn't been dealt with yet. Once the little date hadn't happened and the Drew boy didn't show up to the reservations he'd made, for a moment, Essex thought that perhaps the young Miss Summers was smart enough to not be bothered with his feeble attempt at wooing.

But that was before the two of them were spotted on campus together looking far more agreeable with each other than Essex was comfortable with.

She spent the next week or two simply watching the boy come and go and figuring out when exactly he'd be alone so that he could 'borrow' him for a few hours for some preliminary screenings. And she'd finally gotten her window. She was lying in wait at a reasonable distance, sure that she needed to be involved in this since the Marauders hadn't quite managed it themselves yet — and her current body would fit into the crowd with much more ease than her assistants.

The boy was headed directly toward her when he slowed to a stop and looked at his phone, which was going off madly.

"Hey, Vanessa, what's up?" he asked, and though Essex couldn't hear what was being said on the other end of the phone, it was clear the boy was distressed when he stopped outright and immediately spun on his heel, outright _sprinting_ in the opposite direction, back toward the school library.

Essex was furious, and before she could quite censor herself, she was on her feet with a snarl. She hadn't dealt with this Vanessa person, but it was clear that she must share a similar gift to what the Kaplan boy was capable of. Which just meant she was going to be a thorn in her side.

Essex decided as she stepped around a building to slip away that what she really needed to do was get near the girl when she couldn't see it coming. But with her power set, that would prove to be _difficult_. She began to weigh it out in her mind — how she could get to her — and a little smile curled up when she realized that the answer could be exceedingly simple.

She paced her lab and started writing out several highly detailed plans — any one of which might be a viable means of getting to either Drew or the girl — but she didn't focus on any one of them, instead making sure she had means to deal with whatever situation came up. She knew that, sooner or later, the X-Men involved would step into the possible danger rather than playing it safe — and whenever that happened, she'd be waiting.


	14. Disapproval

It was the morning of Elin's eighteenth birthday, and Chance woke up a bit before her, only to grin and simply pounce on her and kiss her awake.

"Morning," he said with a grin as soon as she opened her eyes.

"Good morning," she replied with a little laugh. "Are you trying to get stabbed first thing?"

"You wouldn't stab me," Chance giggled.

"No, probably not, but you _pounced_ on me. I fear for your sanity."

"Yeah, but it's your birthday," he pointed out.

She smiled a little wider. "Yeah, I guess it is."

"You _guess_ it is?" he teased her. "Don't you know?"

"I don't count down like some people do?"

"Well, good morning anyway," Chance said with a smile.

"Repetitive," she said before she pulled him closer for a kiss. "What do we have scheduled today?"

"Well, James and 'Nessa wanted to go out, and I figured — big breakfast, ring in the day with family…"

"Uh huh, I can see that working out," she agreed.

He grinned. "We're set to meet up with them in about an hour…"

"That's like … 45 minutes longer than I need to get ready."

"Would you look at that," Chance said with a smirk before he leaned down and kissed her into her pillows.

* * *

It was, of course, another hour before they did meet up with James and Vanessa, and Chance grinned widely and waved at them.

James shook his head at Chance and ran a hand over his face. "You're … nevermind."

"Like you can talk," Chance pointed out with a smirk as they headed for the garage. "Morning, 'Nessa."

"Good morning," she sang out with a grin. "You really are ridiculous — but in a very sweet way."

"If you say so," he said, grinning back at her.

Elin rolled her eyes at both of them and stepped over to give her brother a long bear hug. "You know, for someone who's in the mansion all the time, you're really hard to find."

"Hey, I show up when and where I'm supposed to," James countered before he made a point to pull his sister's hair and kiss her cheek. "Happy birthday, by the way. Best big sister ever."

She gave him an understated smile and kissed him on the cheek herself before she snatched the keys off of the rack. "I think we should take the Jeep."

"Sounds good to me," James agreed and Vanessa nodded enthusiastically.

"Yes, that's the best option for sure," she agreed.

"Still having visions of death and despair?" Elin asked as the group headed to the garage.

"Yes," she said, looking frustrated. "I'm not used to my visions being so _wrong._ "

"Hey, no one is complaining that you got it wrong. We all like being alive," Chance assured her.

She gave him a sharp look for that. "I'm telling you: _I'm_ not wrong," Vanessa said with a bit of heat. "They just … altered their plan at the last moment."

Chance quickly held up his hands. "Also not complaining on that front," he said.

"Hey, don't pick at her," James said, though he was clearly teasing. "She really can't take being wrong — more than most people."

"You Howletts must have a type," Chance said, grinning at Vanessa. "It's okay. I hate being off too, even if it just looks like it."

She looked more irritated at that. "I'm telling you _right now_ : someone is screwing with me."

Chance looked a bit more serious. "Hey," he said as he leaned forward, "considering who Charlie says it is… I believe that."

She almost glared at him. "You're as frustrating to talk to as James is sometimes."

"You can't just _agree_ with her," James told him from behind Elin. "She thinks you're just placating her."

"Hey, when it comes to Sinister, I totally understand feeling frustrated," Chance said. "I was just trying to say I get it, that's all. It wasn't a placating thing, I swear."

James held up both hands and leaned back before Vanessa snuggled in. "I didn't say you were. I was just trying to warn you, that's all," he said. Vanessa smiled up at him and kissed his cheek as Elin pulled out of the drive, shaking her head.

"Vanessa, I feel like sooner or later, I'm going to have to threaten you, since you're taking so many liberties with my little brother," Elin said with a straight face. "But I wouldn't know quite where to start."

At that, James leaned forward and pulled her hair again just to do it. "Knock it off."

"I can't," Elin insisted. "You take care of me - I take care of you. Tha's how it works."

The Jeep headed toward town with a little more sibling bickering than either Chance or Vanessa were used to seeing — but it was lighthearted picking both ways, and both of them were obviously enjoying themselves.

There was a moment shortly after their coffee arrived that Vanessa seemed to pale and then began searching the restaurant itself for whatever it was that had spooked her — but whatever or whoever it was wasn't somewhere she could see, and neither of the ferals looked as if they'd scented anything out of the ordinary.

"You okay?" Chance asked her with a frown.

Vanessa frowned, though she kept searching. "I … guess so?"

Both Elin and James stopped what they were doing to pay closer attention to their dining companions, and Elin, without thinking, reached for Chance's hand. After everything that had happened with him lately, she wanted to keep him safe.

"Creep change his mind again?" Chance asked. "He must be scared of you, 'Nessa," he added in a teasing tone, though he was sure to give Elin's hand a squeeze to reassure her that he was on alert too.

"Yeah, I'm _so_ scary," Vanessa said, rolling her eyes before she leaned into James, and he pulled her over to kiss her forehead.

"I don't smell anything out of place," James said. "Just … bad taste." He scrunched his nose up, though he didn't glance one way or another to signal who exactly had offended his delicate sensibilities.

"Lies. I have great taste," Chance said with a smile Elin's way as he played with the ring on her hand.

James didn't look impressed. "You can't get better than our family," he agreed.

Elin rolled her eyes at both of them and leaned in for a kiss, both as a means to relax and a way to get Chance to stop trying to start something with her brother. "If you didn't have good taste, you wouldn't be here with us anyhow," she pointed out.

"What can I say?" Chance said with a shrug. "I am very hopelessly in love."

"It's a hazard," Elin said, initiating another kiss before she glanced over at Vanessa — who was still quiet and once again fiddling with her pearl. Before she could say anything to her about it, James took Vanessa's hand away from the pearl and kissed her palm, getting her to refocus and smile at Elin.

"Sorry. I got lost," Vanessa said quietly.

"Welcome back to Planet Earth, then," Chance said, frowning between them just because he'd never seen _James_ pulling off smooth like that.

"It's a thing that happens," she said with a little shrug, though she was looking concerned again. "They keep shifting their plans. And I _know_ I shouldn't stress too much until it's solid, but … _ugh._ "

"Billy does the same thing, if it makes you feel any better," Chance said. "Harry says his dad has to bring him back to reality a lot lately. You two should compare notes. You might be onto the same problem."

"I'm like … ten thousand percent sure I don't want to hear details on what Teddy does to get Billy back in this dimension," James said.

"Wasn't gonna give them, but if you're so curious…"

James chucked a napkin at Chance with a smirk. "Did I _sound_ curious to you?"

"Very," Chance said without even blinking.

"If that's true, then you're just jealous you don't have my undivided attention," he replied. "And I don't need any pointers. Thanks."

"Pretty sure El didn't need to hear that," he teased.

"Yeah, like you don't know that the nose knows anyhow," James countered with a dry look. "If you two weren't getting married, I'd be within reason to kick the crap out of you."

"Saved by the ring," Chance sang under his breath, smirking at Elin.

"If that was all that was saving you, he'd have done it before you asked," Elin pointed out.

"Also true," Chance had to agree. "I still can't believe your dad let me live."

"Dad likes you," James said. "Thought you got the memo."

"And he knows it'd just tick me off," Elin said. "He doesn't want to see any of us cop a giant attitude like Daken did."

"Just for that, I kinda want to see you in a mohawk," Chance teased.

"Storm has pictures," Elin said airly.

"If you felt like giving me a just because present…"

"Of which one of us?" James asked, looking perfectly serious. "Because I gotta tell you: Daken has to put a LOT of work in to keep that thing."

Chance broke into a laugh. "I need it."

"We _had_ to let Storm do it," Elin said. "She's got the best eye for that kind of thing."

"Framed. I need it framed."

"We'll consult the Goddess and see if she's willing to share," James replied.

"If I tell her I want it as a wedding present…"

"She'll give you something more tasteful," Elin said, shoving him lightly.

"Then I'll ask Forge."

"You think he's gonna sabotage me?" James said. "That would only start a prank war."

"Who's talking sabotage? You said I had to ask Storm, and I said I wanted it for a present. She would give me something else…"

"Storm," Elin said. "You ask her. You do not go for an end run around her."

*... And since she is giving me something else, I ask Forge to wrap it. Still getting the present and permission, just in a different box."

"Didn't say she wouldn't give it to you, just that she wouldn't consider it a wedding present," Elin said before she grabbed a hold of his collar and pulled him over for a much longer kiss. "Stop being so ridiculous just to do it."

"Okay," he said with an easy smile.

The rest of their little meal went much the same way, with light picking back and forth, teasing about wedding plans, and attempts to pick on James for how serious he was about Vanessa — though that fell flat when he simply didn't argue it at all and answered most of it with a shrug and a light 'and your point is?' that left no real way for Chance to tease.

If anything, it was surprising just because James wasn't bothered by it at all — and no one really knew how tight he and Vanessa had been getting. So obviously, Elin and Chance both knew they'd have to watch them too to avoid issues like Elin's parents had before their wedding.

"We need to do this more," Chance said, his arm around Elin's shoulders as they headed out as a group.

"Any particular reason? Like … you miss my brother terribly?" she teased.

He laughed. "Can't I enjoy family time?"

"I don't know … can you?" she said before she bumped him with her hip.

"I can endure," he teased before he simply turned and wrapped her up in a long and involved kiss.

But the moment was rudely interrupted when Vanessa let out a soft gasp that caught both Elin and James' attention — though the girl was rooted to the spot, wide-eyed and obviously scared.

"'Ness, come on," James said, though he was looking around them to try to see what the trouble was. "If there's a problem, we gotta move." He took a hold of her arm and tried to urge her to move, but before she'd budged an inch, the roar of an engine reached them. James didn't even slow down to think before he scooped her up and tried to get her clear of the road when they saw the car headed their way.

The four of them rushed to get out of the car's path, but it swerved with them, clearly on a collision course. At the last second, all the two Howletts could do was try to shield their dates from the brunt of the damage as the huge SUV plowed into them.

It all happened in a rush, and before any of them could do more than brace for it, they were all laid out on the concrete. Elin was unconscious, along with the two non-healers in the group, though James was still with it. All four were badly battered and bleeding as James heard the sound of heels on the concrete — and Sinister looked over the scene with a hum of disappointment.

"So much trouble to save them," she said in a breath. "A waste, really." She crossed the span to crouch beside Vanessa as Elin started to blink back to consciousness while James was still healing, the bones not mended enough to get up yet to pummel Sinister.

He couldn't do anything about it, but he wasn't about to leave it at that, and as Sinister turned toward Vanessa, James pulled out his panic button, hit it, and whipped it at Sinister's head.

Sinister sneered at him after it rebounded. "So much like your mother," she said.

"Thank you," James said with a glare. "I pushed the button first, jackass. Count the seconds."

Sinister glared at him, though she straightened up and fixed the two ferals with an imperious look. "You could do so much better. This is beneath you. _Both of you_."

"Don't need your creepy dating advice," Elin growled out, though she was holding her arm close to her chest as she pushed herself up one-handed. "Especially when you're so wrong."

Sinister's lip curled back, but in an instant, several bamfs arrived, and Sinister teleported away with a pop before Kurt and the bamfs could get involved to _stop_ her.

"I've got them," Kurt promised Elin and James, seeing as he had seen Sinister and knew at least some of what the problem was. He didn't have to say much else before he teleported off with Vanessa, with one of the bamfs following with Chance and the rest bringing the two Howletts a moment later.

At this point, Henry had started to prep the lab every time a panic button was pushed, so he was ready to meet them when they arrived, frowning over the extent of the injuries he was seeing on both of the non-healers.

And while Hank got to work, Kurt turned to the two others and eased them both to beds of their own while they were healing, with bones mending and muscles stitching back together. "What did he want?" he asked.

"Same old story," Elin said, her eyes narrowed, though she and James both had their attention on their dates, watching Hank's expression to see how bad it was. "Sticking her nose where it doesn't belong."

"Was it directed?"

"Seemed like it," Elin said with a little frown toward James. "And not against Chance."

Kurt frowned between the two of them and then let out a breath. "I'm just glad you are all back," he said at last before he gave Elin a little kiss on the forehead and teleported off again — meaning to go find Scott to let him know that Sinister had showed her face again.

* * *

When Chance woke up again, he was frustrated by the familiar floating sensation that meant he had been under sedation. Even if it had been a year since Viper, he still hated that feeling, not being in control of all his faculties.

But it helped significantly to have Elin there when he woke up, and he couldn't help but smile at her as she took his hand when she saw he was up. "Hey, Sweet Summers."

"Hey yourself," he said with a tired smile and squeezed her hand. He closed his eyes, still fighting the desire to fall back into unconsciousness, and then shifted to try and sit up a little more, not surprised when his ribs protested the move. "Who was it this time?" he asked.

"Sinister," Elin admitted, frowning when Chance almost looked resigned to that answer.

"Never gonna get rid of that creep," he muttered low before he tried for a small smile her way. "I take it he didn't approve?" he asked, twisting her ring a bit before he paused and then let out a breath. "Or was it just the usual 'get rid of the human' story?"

"She doesn't like that I'm interfering with her plans," Vanessa said in a shaky voice. "That has to be it. She wasn't _looking_ at anyone else in the visions. And … I didn't see the SUV because she was just … _mad._ It wasn't _planned._ "

James didn't wait for permission before he made his way over to Vanessa and sat down next to her to be there for her if she wanted him — and as soon as he was within arm's reach, she wrapped herself halfway around him and simply started crying. He tried to get her to settle out and told her in low tones that this was just something that all of them had been forced to deal with at some point or another — and that one thing was sure: it wasn't her fault. At all. "She's a grade-A psycho," he said, just loud enough for Chance to hear too. "I tried to warn you that it was crazy. You _don't_ have to stick it out with me. I don't want you miserable, Ness."

"She is the literal worst," Chance agreed. "But don't let her stop you from living, okay? We'll have your back."

Vanessa nodded, but didn't have anything more to add — clearly more shaken with a little distance and understanding.

James looked over Vanessa's shoulder to his sister. "Well. Pretty crappy birthday. Your present should be in your room by now anyhow. Not the distraction I was going for …"

Chance leaned over and gave Elin a kiss. "Go see. It's your birthday, after all, and I promise not to kick it while your back is turned."

She gave him a crooked smile and shook her head. "I won't be long; can you take care of Vanessa so I can have a word with my big little brother?"

Chance nodded. "Sure. We can commiserate over the creep, right 'Nessa?"

"Oh, sure," she said, drawing her knees up to her chest. "Nothing like starting your day finding out that you're supposed to be inferior just because you're ahead of a loser."

"She sucks at … life, really," Chance said. "And hates to lose. Consider it a compliment. Not many people can get one step ahead of Miss Sinister herself."

Vanessa smiled his way before James kissed her forehead and stepped out with Elin. "You know what I don't understand?" Vanessa said once the ferals were gone. "If she's collecting abilities — which is what James told me before — why does she think she can also control everyone's life?"

"Not everyone," Chance said. "Mostly my family… and Logan's. It's an obsession, not really part of the rest of the 'studies'. No matter how she frames it."

"Seems like a lot of creeps are obsessed with that family," she said, frowning at the door. "I read the book."

"Yeah," Chance said, watching her carefully. "For a few different reasons. I know I'm marrying into it, but if you don't think you want to deal with the creeps…." He trailed off and shook his head. "Look, I want James to be happy. And personally, I would hate for you to throw away something amazing because of someone like that interfering. But this is a whole set of problems you don't have to sign up for."

Her hand had drifted up to play with the pearl on her necklace as she slowly shook her head. "I'm not going anywhere."

"Because you picked him or because you see it that way? Because there is a difference."

She looked up at him and raised an eyebrow. "Both," she said. "And I love him."

"Okay," he said, holding up his hands. "I just want you both to be okay. When I asked Elin to marry me, Logan reminded me that that family… they are _always_ going to be forced to deal with heartbreak. Even if it's just age. So I want to make sure that when it comes to you two, it's age and not something horrible… if you really are that serious."

She watched him for a long moment and nodded. "That's a good plan to have," she said. "And not worry so much about what's going on sooner … that's something James has been trying to get me to do more of."

"Can't help you there," Chance said. "I'm a Summers. I can't help but worry about people, especially the ones I love."

"That's kind of my catch twenty-two," she pointed out. "I can really only see those that are most important to me. Others … if it's a big, big deal, sure … but to see things clearly, it's restricted to those that I love."

"Well, then, I'm sorry," Chance said with a smile. "You can't help but care. Not a weakness, as far as I'm concerned."

She gave him a little smile. "You'll always wear your heart on your sleeve, I'm sure."

"Looks good on me," he defended.

"It's not a criticism," she said with a smirk.

He just smiled at that. "Oh good," he said. "Because I'm pretty sure I can't change it."

* * *

While Chance and Vanessa were joking around, getting to know each other and quietly and casually discussing the pitfalls of dating a Howlett, the brother and sister duo were upstairs.

When Elin saw the blown-up photos that James had made for her, she had to grin, though she very nearly cried when she took a closer look at the subject matter. One of them was of a spot up north in Canada — all mountains and trees with a mirror like lake all covered in snow. Another was one that he'd managed to use a timer on so that he was in the shot with the rest of the family — just in silhouette — with their backs to the camera as they headed down a path of cherry blossoms in Japan with the pink petals drifting down in the wind all around them. The last one … although it was scenic, it wasn't exactly a landscape. The rolling hills in the north-west was the subject, and though the focus was on the lush green and the mountains in the distance, the foreground held a beautiful herd of horses that were running in a large group.

"I tried to set you up with a few selections," James said as he gestured to the pictures. "All I'm missing is a fall scene. Give me a little time and I'll get that for you, too."

She turned on the spot and wrapped him up in a tight hug. "Don't you let that girl run off," she said. "She's a little scared, but … who wouldn't be?"

"I wouldn't blame her if she tapped out," James said as he gave her a tighter squeeze before the two of them headed toward their parent's suite.

But at that, Elin flat out punched him hard in the shoulder. "Don't you dare drive that girl away," she said, pointing a finger in his face. "Odds are, she was on Sinister's list anyhow if she's been blocking Sinister from grabbing anyone."

James had to tip his head at that. "Yeah. I guess that might just be true." He let out a breath and put his arm around her shoulders. "Sorry for the crappy start to your day."

"Not your fault," Elin replied before she gave him a side hug and they stepped in to see their parents.

* * *

When Sinister returned to her lab, she was still livid, pacing back and forth as she flexed her hands out a few more times. If she could focus more on her studies, on what she had been building for _decades_ , she would have been able to prevent these — these _atrocities_.

First Scott and then, it seemed, his daughter was following in his footsteps — not at _all_ considering the best compatibility in her choices. Essex had yet to study the Drew boy beyond the barely acceptable fact that he _had_ the X-gene. And now _both_ of the older Howlett children were selecting _dross_.

She simply couldn't allow this to stand. And seeing a _wedding_ on the horizon had simply left her with no recourse but to address the issue. Immediately.

It was simply a matter of frustration that they had all survived.

"Were my instructions unclear, or have you once again failed in your task?"

Sinister froze at the voice and clenched her hands in fists. "The girl is dangerous," she spit out. "Like the Kaplan boy."

"So this was simply a preventative measure — or did she interfere with an acquisition?"

"Both are true," Sinister replied.

"Correct it. I tire of waiting on your 'process'."


	15. Sibling Date

To make up for a cruddy birthday, and partly because James was sure that he should follow Elin's lead on keeping Chance and Vanessa safe, the two Howlett kids headed out a week or so after Elin's birthday to scope the coffee shop and put themselves out there. The intel had finally come in on the girl that had approached Elin and Chance before, and their statement through David had been making waves in the anti-human and pro-mutant communities. Big time.

And because it was buzzing, they knew that the girl would be on the lookout for anyone on the junior team — and Elin was the most prominent, seeing as she'd already been doing outreach in Salem Center. James went rather than Krissy, if nothing else because he'd been starting to get more interest when he stepped out of Stark Tower, seeing as he still had time to fill with Tony before he'd finished up his 'internship'. So the two of them together should have been pretty alluring for any young reporter.

And sure enough, Alyssa ended up taking the bait, though she was much less exuberant about approaching them after the last "interview."

"Sibling date?" she asked with a hesitant smile.

"Please don't ever use that phrase again," James said with a rueful look, though he gave her an almost crooked sort of smile.

"Oh, okay, sorry," she said, though she couldn't help but smile back at him.

"Alyssa, right?" Elin said.

The girl broke into a _huge_ smile. "That's right!" she said. "Did you find my 'cast?"

"Chance found it for me," she replied. "It's not half bad."

"Thanks!" She seemed a lot more confident as she pulled on her hair and bounced on the balls of her feet.

"You got your coffee yet?" James asked. "Or did you just come over to say 'hi'?"

"Oh, I — I haven't ordered yet," she said. "But I did want to say 'hi'," she admitted. "And ask how things are going, I guess."

"Get your coffee first," James advised. "We just sat down."

Alyssa beamed at him and rushed off to order, practically skipping as she did so.

"You're _flirting_ ," Elin accused James at a whisper before the girl could come back.

"Hey. Work with what you got," James shot right back, though that had Elin raising an eyebrow at her little brother.

"You really, _truly_ have spent too much time with Tony Stark," Elin hissed, though James smiled wider at that just to irk her.

When Alyssa got back, it was with a latte and a huge smile. "So," she said, "do you mind?"

James moved over on his side of the booth to make room and gestured to the open space. "Nah. Busy cafe."

Alyssa grinned as she sat down beside him and then paused, biting her lip. 'Do you mind if I record?" she asked. "For the cast?"

Elin tipped her head to the side. "I guess that depends on what you want to talk about," she said. "But I'm not necessarily against it. Not with the weirdos that are starting to pop up that have opinions on our team."

"Well, that's what I'd love to talk about," Alyssa said. "I mean… that video with your _fiance_ was all over the internet…" She took a deep breath and, when Elin didn't seem to object, took out her camera and turned it over a few times in her hands.

"Those guys were awful," Elin agreed, nodding. "But really just a bunch of bullies."

James tapped Alyssa's arm and nodded encouragingly. "Go ahead, 'Lyss. She'll be nice."

Alyssa smiled broadly at him and then rushed to get her blush under control as she started up the cast. "So, _hi,_ I'm with James and Elin Howlett, and we're going to talk about the rise of the anti-humanity movement." She turned the camera toward the other two. "So, why don't we start with the obvious? Elin, can you tell me about _your_ point of view on what happened with Chance Summers and Superior Rising?"

"My point of view shouldn't be any kind of a surprise," Elin said, perfectly reasonably. "We were taught to treat everyone alike — mutants, humans, and mutates. They're all people; no one's any better than anyone else. And that is the official stance of the X-Men, so anyone goose-stepping around and saying anything else is full of crap."

Alyssa nodded. "That makes sense," she said. "And you're right; it's not a surprise. But you have to admit: you have a personal stake in what's going on. Can't you personalize it for us?"

"Chance is one of the co-leaders of the junior team," Elin said. "He earned his spot on the team — and he's _not_ the first human on the team. So any nastiness directed at him? Totally unearned."

"Not everyone thinks so," Alyssa said. "Obviously not my viewers, but you have to admit, with the Canadian drama…."

"Let me let you in on a little secret," James said. "Once the people having a problem with our membership can pass the qualifiers to join, _then_ they can have an opinion. The only people who have the right to decide who's on the junior team is the senior team. Not armchair racists."

"You're on the team now too," Alyssa said with a smile, turning toward him. "Are you excited? Is it weird being on a team with your sister and your future brother-in-law?"

"Weird?" he let out a little laugh and smiled wider. "Come on. We've been close for years. Learned how to fight together. And both of 'em have been bossing me around for ages. Nothing weird about it."

"And what do you think about this whole anti-humanity thing?"

He tipped his head lightly. "I can't say that I'm too surprised. The way that people think, everyone without any kind of a life wants proof that they're better than everyone else. It's like watching over-sized junior high kids."

Alyssa couldn't help but laugh. "Yeah, I hear that." She leaned forward. "So, what are the X-Men doing about it?"

"Same thing we've always done," Elin said. "We don't put up with anyone being mistreated or stomped down. I'm sure you saw the video of Cyclops saying as much."

"It was pretty amazing," Alyssa agreed with a wide smile. "You don't really see him coming out to fight that much recently."

"You don't see them coming out much anyhow," James pointed out. "Neither team is generally around big groups of people unless it's really trouble." Between the two of them, James was certainly doing a better job of _looking_ relaxed, even if Elin could see he was ready to spring. He was a little too tense after the Sinister brush, and for the first time, she was starting to really see it. But it was a damn good act, and Alyssa was eating it up.

"Then you must be taking this whole thing very seriously," Alyssa said.

"You saw what they did to Chance," James said. "That was an attack on the team."

"Is he alright?" Alyssa asked, looking mostly to Elin.

"He's doing fine," Elin promised. "Nothing has changed there. James and I were just out to get a break from the house."

"I was wondering," Alyssa admitted. "I mean, you were here without him."

"It's been a while since my brother and I could sync up our schedules," Elin said.

"That busy?" Alyssa asked.

"Mostly on me," James admitted.

"How so?"

"My other job complicates things sometimes," James said, leaning his chin on the palm of his hand.

"But you find a good balance, right? Any tips for the viewers on the work-life-family conundrum"

"Make a point to have some fun."

Alyssa beamed at him and then looked between the two of them. "Is there anything else you want our viewers to know? Any message to share with the world?"

"Just that if you want to know what the X-Men have to say about things, it's best to consult one instead of fabricating your own interpretation of what we've always said," Elin said before she gave her a little smile. "To those that are actually making crap up, of course."

"Go to the source. Definitely good advice."

"And if you can't get to us ... if we're busy or whatever … just refer back to what Xavier had to say," James added. "There wasn't a thing he ever said about mutants being better than anyone. Just equal. Might be a good place to start — and remember that it's about _peaceful_ coexistence."

As soon as Alyssa finished her cast and turned off the phone, Elin let out a little breath. "So. What about you?" she asked. "You know everything about us, and all we know is your name."

Alyssa shrugged lightly. "There isn't much to tell. I'm a communications student. This is just something to do in between study sessions."

"Yeah, but that's not what she was asking," James said, still smirking to himself. "Where do you stand?"

"Oh!" Alyssa's eyes widened, and then she quickly nodded. "Oh, I grew up close by. The X-Men have always been nice… and then when my sister got her powers, well, how can you not stand by each other, right?"

Elin's smile warmed up considerably as she nodded. "That's how it should be, yeah."

The two Howletts shared a look for a moment, and James put his hand out toward Alyssa. "Let me see your phone for a sec."

"Oh… okay, sure, but why?" Alyssa asked, holding onto it for a moment before handing it over.

James shook his head and punched in a number. "Next time you want to ask questions, text."

Alyssa's entire expression lit up like a Christmas tree. "I will!" she said, grinning widely and clutching her phone to her chest. "Thanks!"

"No problem," he replied, highly entertained by the enthusiasm.

With that, Alyssa all but skipped out of the cafe, still almost laughing to herself and leaving the two Howletts shaking their heads.

"Can't hurt, right?" James said. "Better than letting speculation whirl around."

"Yeah," Elin said, laughing to herself. "And a second source to back up what David is doing can't hurt either. Even if it is small."


	16. The Adults Need Happiness Too

All things considered, Jubilee and Noh were half convinced that they were going to come home to yet another engagement — and Jubilee had to make Sying swear up and down that he wouldn't do anything noteworthy while they were gone before she agreed to a trip in the _Marvel_ for their twentieth anniversary.

Not that she told Sying that she was specifically worried about a _proposal_. She didn't want to plant ideas or scare him off or anything. She just mentioned that she didn't want to have to fly back for any big news… She was pretty sure Sying thought she was telling him not to get Krissy pregnant. Which was also a good warning to make, if she was honest.

Noh, on the other hand, simply informed the kids that they'd be going on an anniversary trip and politely requested that no world-ending shenanigans occur to keep up their ongoing joke of a tradition that anniversaries needed to be more dangerous than usual.

Also a good warning to make.

But now, at last, they were all packed up and ready to go, and the _Marvel_ even seemed excited, whirring occasionally as they climbed aboard — and taking off with more speed than usual.

"She needed to get out," Noh explained with an easy shrug.

"Any particular reason?" Jubilee teased with her chin on his shoulder.

"She thinks we're neglecting her in her old age," Noh explained, patting the console consolingly.

Jubilee giggled and ran her hand over the side of the ship. "Awww, jealous of all the adventures going on?" She stopped and then pointed a finger at the _Marvel_. "That is _not_ an invitation to find trouble for our anniversary, by the way. I don't need to get caught up in another interstellar war."

"Not because you're too old for such nonsense, obviously," Noh teased. "You _are_ older than me."

Jubilee dropped her jaw and smacked him with the back of her hand. "I thought you wanted to kiss me. At all. On our anniversary."

Noh chuckled and then caught her hand to kiss it. "Forgive me for daring to tease you, my darling Jubilee. You are, as ever, radiant and unchanged."

"You're still teasing me," she sang back to him, though this time, it was the right kind of teasing, and she was grinning as he kissed her fingers.

"Do you want me to stop?" Noh asked, grinning crookedly at her over the tops of her fingers.

"Depends," she said, with her nose up in the air. "Are you going to tease me about my age or be your fabulously silly and romantic self to make it up?"

"Yes," he said, laughing outright when she yanked her hand back and picked her bag up.

"Oh, well, in that case, I can just leave…"

Noh laughed and then rushed forward to snatch her up to him in a way that trapped her hands between them as he kissed her forehead. "No, wait," he said, still laughing, "please don't deprive me of the most beautiful warrior in any universe on our _anniversary_."

"You brought it on yourself," she said, angling her face away from him so he couldn't kiss her - though she wasn't _really_ trying to get away otherwise.

"Yes, but I'm so helplessly giddy with you I can't help but get carried away into the kinds of ridiculousness I would never consider had I stayed in my own reality," Noh said and kissed her cheek.

"You're getting warmer…"

"And I only tease you about your age because you remain so frustratingly, agelessly beautiful while I wither…"

Jubilee laughed and shook her head before she turned to kiss his cheek. "You're not _withering_. Stop that."

"Oh, but I am," he said, nodding along with a smile. "Twenty years with you, and I am looking forward to every new one — but I am an old man and you are a timeless treasure."

"You're so ridiculous, you know that?"

Noh smirked. "Yes, I'm aware."

Jubilee laughed again and then finally relaxed into him, so he shifted the way he was holding her. "Twenty years," she said, sighing out the phrase as she rested her head on his heart.

"Yes, well, we _are_ about to witness the first marriage in this generation of heroes," Noh pointed out. "Mathematically speaking—"

"Oh, you were doing so _well_." Jubilee let her shoulders drop, the perfect picture of disappointment.

Noh chuckled. "You act as though you haven't been plotting ahead."

"Um, because I _need_ to be there to see the looks on Scott's and Logan's faces when Elin and Chance get married. This is the kind of thing we need to _document_ for _future generations of X-Men_." Jubilee's eyes were wide. "You know I'm right."

Noh laughed. "I already told the _Marvel_ to avoid trouble so we get back in plenty of time to not only witness this history in the making but to catch up on anything _else_ that might have happened."

"Careful there, mister. I already told Sying—"

"Sying isn't the only one to watch," Noh said with a troublemaking smile.

Jubilee's eyebrows shot up, and then, she laughed and wrapped her arms around his neck. "I have a feeling this is going to be one amazing summer."

* * *

The school year was winding down - and Logan had finished giving the last of the finals for his classes. It had been _busy_. Busier than normal and now, he found himself looking for a bit more quiet whenever he could get it. He knew he was an a unique position as his oldest daughter with K was preparing to be married … and Logan and K were expecting another little one. His moments of quiet were sure to be hard to find in the very near future, and for now, he was doing what he could to keep his wife happy. And today, that meant getting away from her.

So Logan had gone to the garage to work on the bike again. It had been a few months since he'd had time to do that - and the weather had been perfect for riding, so he wanted to get it going so he could have it ready for K once the baby had gotten there and she needed to breathe.

All of the chrome had been put on, the new engine had finally felt like it was broken in - and if the oil spot under the bike was any measuring stick, it was running well. He was planning to take just the time needed to change the oil and give it a once over before he headed out. Things were heating up _again_ between the anti-mutant racists and the anti-human racists … which was an angle that Logan thought had crapped out with Magneto's brotherhood _years_ ago. And it was one more thing that made it hard for him to _go_ anywhere and not be recognized by one group or another. It was just a tossup of if it would be people that hated him causing trouble, or people he hated that wanted to schmooze. Neither was an attractive option.

But getting out on the bike helped with that as both groups were less likely to bother him if he didn't look too … approachable.

He had his tools laid out next to the bike an had just sat down on the creeper with the garage door open when the wind shifted ever so slightly and Logan paused, looking outside and to the skies. A heavy dose of ozone was thick in the air - something he hadn't noticed when he was inside getting his gear - but now, with the garage door open, it was impossible to ignore. He stood there for a moment with a quart of 20W-50 in his hand when the rumble of thunder started to roll overhead as if the clouds were letting out a breath. A moment later, the wind gusted into the garage, blowing that puff of ozone into his face just before the rain started to fall in big, fat droplets.

"So much for riding," Logan said to himself, since he'd promised Sadie he wouldn't go out and ride in the rain after she'd seen how torn up people could get in wrecks. He sighed heavily, hen went to the bike anyhow. He may not be able to ride, but weather like this was made for repairs and adjustments. So, as he settled in, he tried to run though every scenario on how to deal with trouble ahead of the wedding. He was lost in thought as h reached for the catch pan, which simply wasn't where it should have been. At all.

He frowned and turned, then tipped his head. "Jayce."

With a grin, Jayce stepped out of the tool chest where he'd taken Logan's catch pan. "How'd you know?"

"My nose still works fine."

"Okay. Fine. But … you never did take me riding - and you said you would."

Logan gestured to the rain. "Lil' too wet to take you out now."

"Alright, but ... "

Logan sighed. "Why don't you come on over and you can do the oil change."

Jayce perked up, looking so much like his father when he was that off guard that Logan had to control the grumble. "Really? Not just handing tools to you, but like …"

"You wanna learn how or not?"

"Yes, please!" Jayce rushed over, nearly knocking over the tray full of tools and parts as he did so. "What do I do first?"

Logan smirked and handed him the key. "Start 'er up."

"I thought we were working on it."

"Yeah, but it's gotta be warm. Go ahead."

Jayce grinned and cautiously took the key from his grandfather, smiling wider every second as he listened to Logan coaching him through how to start it up. Logan was sure the kid was going to break his face at the rate he was going, but out of all the grandkids he'd seen, so far, Jayce was the one that was the most mechanically inclined - likely because of his father. And Logan decided, perhaps a few months too late, that he really should have been fostering that inclination a lot faster than he had been.

He encouraged Jayce to rev it up hotter - and for a long moment, the kid looked like he thought he was getting away with murder - and that expression only got more intense when the garage door open and his best friend came out with a look of sheer jealousy on seeing Jayce on Logan's motorcycle with Logan standing next to him and walking him through more.

"No fair," Tristan said in a breath as he wandered closer in spite of himself. "Can I help too?"

Logan glanced between the two boys, and considered it only for a moment. He hadn't missed how disappointed they'd been the last few times they'd caught up to him in the garage - and they _were_ doing well with learning how to control their abilities. He wasn't overly concerned with the grades though. "Sure, come on. You can help Jayce change the oil."

"By _himself?"_ Tristan was wide eyed - an expression that was still something Logan had to get used to seeing on a Creed kid.

"He's gotta learn," Logan said. "You can too, if you really want to."

"Can I learn help the next time the Blackbird needs repairs too?" Tristan asked, grinning already as he joined them.

"I don't see why not," Logan answered. "Be good to have more'n a couple people to know how to patch the old gal up."

And a few minutes later, Jayce got to work - with Tristan assisting and Logan telling them what to do and supervising over their shoulders. Both boys dropped the teasing and joking as they got more serious about their work, which was a pleasant surprise for Logan. He had expected them to continue acting like the chuckleheads they always had been. But … it was clear the boys were growing up - and they were _trying hard_ so Logan didn't send them away. And he knew it, too.

Logan sighed to himself, a little move that had drawn Tristan's attention. "Are we doing something wrong?"

"No, not at all," Logan replied, then rested his hand on Tristan's shoulder before directing Jayce into grabbing a yet-unopened box. "Since Jayce got to do the oil change, if you still wanna help, you can put on the new handlebars."

"No way," Tristan said. "I thought you didn't want any more help with the bike?"

"Figure you should both know a little more about it if I'm gonna get you ridin'."

"You mean riding with you …. Right?" Jayce asked with an expression of hesitant _hope_.

"No. I mean ridin' on some dirtbikes. Gonna start you small and see if you even wanna mess around with 'em before you get old enough to get a road bike."

Tristan and Jayce shared a broad grin. "This is the best news I've heard _all year_ ," Jayce said.

"What about your Aunt getting married?" Tristan asked, though he couldn't stop the smile either. "Or your new aunt or uncle on the way? Or your _mom_ coming in early."

"Tris. We get to learn _dirtbikes_ ," Jayce said. "Useful life information!"

"And a step closer to gettin' road bikes," Logan said, which had Jayce grinning wider.

"Which means riding _with_ Grampa Wolvie. _As in alongside_ , not behind!"

"I'll … need to check with my Dad," Tristan said, though he was glowing with the possibility.

"Only thing your dad might do is want to go with," Logan said.

"Would that be okay?" Tristan asked, somehow more enthralled with the idea.

"Sure," Logan agreed, and after a moment, Tristan couldn't hold still any longer before he took out his phone and texted his dad to see, which started off a whole chain reaction of entertainment for him.

And once he was done in the garage - and the storm intensified further, Logan closed things up and headed up to check on K. She had been fairly uncomfortable for the past few weeks - with little hope for that easing in the immediate future. But she had pushed him away earlier when he'd tried to take care of her, so he was approaching hr cautiously.

When he dropped his jacket on the chair just inside their suite, he turned to find her curled up on her side and hugging a pillow. "You need anything, sweetheart?" Logan asked, slowly walking her way.

She shrugged lightly, but didn't answer, so Logan took it as an invitation to curl up with her. "I probably shouldn't have snapped at you," K said as she let him slide closer - ditching the pillow in favor of curling into his side, which had Logan smiling again.

"Nah, you're fine," he promised before he kissed her and settled in better. "You wouldn't be this miserable if it wasn't for me."

"True," she said, then shifted to kiss him a little more deeply. "I almost forgot how much I hate this part."

"Me too," he agreed, then nestled into the crook of her neck. "Especially the part where you tell me to go."

She had her arms around him and was running a hand through his hair. "I never really mean it."

"I know. That's why I never go far without you."

K smiled at that, much more relaxed than she'd been when she'd been frustrated enough to demand space. "You weren't terribly lonely today were you?"

"Nah. Taught Jayce how to change the oil on the hog, decided the boys need dirtbikes. Might keep 'em out of trouble, and it'll help Jayce's sense of balance," Logan said.

"You're much better at this than I am," K told him softly after a long moment of quiet between them.

"You can't believe that," Logan argued before he stole a long kiss and smiled crookedly her way. "You make it easy. Why do you think our kids are so good?"

K held his gaze then smirked. "Because they take after their father. Obviously."

He met her gaze, matching her expression for a long moment before he pulled her tighter to wrap her up since he knew that at this stage of the game, she slept best when she was settled in with him. "I didn't tell Annie," he said, though K didn't move. "But I ordered in for us. Kids can go down to her and whatever she's up to … you an' me? We're stayin' right here."

"You have an accomplice to keep you from having to move, or are you letting me get comfy just to ditch?"

"Chance is gonna bring it up when it gets here." Logan smiled into her hair.

"And he's not telling his mom?"

"Not today. He saw how much of a hard mornin' you had."

K nodded again and curled in that much tighter. Just a few more months left and K could turn her back on all of the mood swings and misery that her pregnancy always brought. Just a few more months an Annie could shift gears from fretting over her well being to holding a baby.

Logan was looking forward to it. All of it. The world around them might not understand what the team was trying to do … but he knew that he'd be able to keep putting up with their crap as long as he had _this_ to come home to.


End file.
